IS 1487 
H3 

opy 1 



THE BOOK OF CANTICLES 

OR 

THE SONG OF SONGS 



BY PAUL HAUPT 



PRINTED AT 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
1902 



THE 

Book of Canticles 

A NEW RHYTHMICAL TRANSLATION 



WITH RESTORATION OF THE HEBREW TEXT 

AND 

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES 



BY 

PAUL HAUPT, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES IN THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
BALTIMORE 



Reprinted from The American Journal of Semitic Languages and 
Literatures, Vol. XVIII, pp. 193-245 ; Vol. XIX, pp. 1-32 



Gbicago 

1902 



TH^ LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

AUG. 9 1902 

n Copyright entry 
CLASS CU XXa NO. 
COPY S, 1 



COPYRIGHT, 1902, 
BY PAUL HAUPT. 



Printed at The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.'Ill. 



THE BOOK OF CANTICLES* 



OR 

The Song of Songs. a 



1. Procession of the Bride. 2 

3, 6 Who is this, coming up 3 from the meadows,* 
with pillars of smoke 5 - (as her herald),^ 
(All) perfumed 7 with myrrh 8 and with incense,' 
with all powders 9 (sold) by the dealer? 10 

7 Behold, it is the King's Y litter 

escorted by three score of heroes ; 12 5 

8 A simitar on thigh each (is bearing 

to guard) against danger 15 at night-time. 

9 It was made for the King, € this conveyance, 17 

of Lebanon's wood 18 (is it fashioned) ; 
10 ^Inlaid is its seat 11 with choice ebon, 

and within 22 (all its linings are) purple. 



1,1 (a) which is by Solomon i 

8, 5 ((3) Who is this, coming up 3 from the meadows,* leaning on him whom she loves? 6 
3, 7 (y) Solomon's " 

(8) from the heroes of Israel ;13 

8 All of them carrying simitars, (all) being experts in warfare!* 

9 (e) Solomon n 

10 (£) Its columns t9 are fashioned of silver, its couch is (constructed) of gold 20 

6,12 (tj) I do not know, The desire of my heart is fulfilled, 

on the noble clan's carriage it has placed me. 21 

* Reprinted from The Amebic an Joubnal or Semitic Languages and Litebatubes, 
Vol. XVIII, pp. 193-245 ; Vol. XIX, pp. 1-32 (July and October, 1902). 

3 



4 



Hebraioa 



No. 2 



3,11 d Come forth 23 and gaze 1 on the King 24 " there, 

thus crowned 25 as his mother has crowned him ! 
On the (festival) day of his wedding, 

on the day when his heart was (right) joyful ! 

2. Charms of the Bride during her Sword-dance. 1 

6,10 Who is this, looking forth like the dawning, 2 
striking awe 3 like an army with banners, 
Pair as the moon 4 (and as lovely), 

bright as the sun 5 (and as spotless) ? 

7, 1 Turn thee, 6 O Shulamite, 7 turn thee ! 

turn, turn ! that we may gaze on thee. 
Gaze ye now (all) on the Shulamite 

(dancing) the round of the warriors. 8 

2 How gracefully now art thou stepping 

in chopines, 9 O nobleman's daughter ! 10 
The turns 11 of thy hips are 12 a necklace 
wrought by the hand of a master. 

8 Thy stature is (tall) like a palm-tree, 13 

thy breasts* like (its) clusters of fruitage, 15 ? 

6 Thy head resembles Mount Carmel, 21 

the locks of thy head are (dark) purple. 22 Y 

5 * Thy neck is the Tower of Ivory ; 24 

thine eyes are the lakelets in Heshbon ; 25 8 
Thy nose is like Lebanon's Tower 27 

looking (far forth) to Damascus. 



3,10 (0) maidens of Jerusalem 11 (0 maidens of Zion. 11 (*) Solomon n 



7, i («) Like two (lovely) fawns is thy bosom, 

(or) like a gazelle's (pretty) twinlings. 1 * 

9 (£) I think, I will climb up that palm-tree,i6 

to grasp (with my hand) its spadices.* 7 
May thy breasts be like clusters of fruitage 18 of the vine 
and like apples 19 thy breath 20 in its fragrance ! 

6 (v) a King captured by ringlets ! 23 5 (5) at the gate of Bath-rabbim 26 



No. 3 



The Book of Canticles 



5 



7.10 Thy mouth 28 is like wine that is goodly , e 

moving the lips of the dreamers. 30 
7 How beauteous art thou ! and lovely ! 

beloved one, O daughter of transport ! 

3 b A heap of wheat 31 is thy person, 32 

encompassed with (dark purple) lilies ; 33 

3 a Thy lap 34 is a bowl that is covered, 35 

wherein wine may ever be mingled. 36 

3. Brothers of the Bride. 

6, 3 My dear one's am I, and he is mine, too ; a 

7.11 ^and (ah,) for my love is he longing. 
2, 1 The meadow-saffron 2 of Sharon 3 

or the lily of the valleys am I. iy 

1, 5 Swarthy 7 am I, but comely, 

ye maidens (who live) in Jerusalem, 8 
(Dark) like the tent-roofs 9 of Kedar, 10 

(but) like arras in Solomon's 11 (palace). 12 

6 Heed not my swarthy complexion, 

the sun it is that has burned me : 
Wroth were the sons of my mother, 13 

of the vineyards they made me the keeper. 145 



8, 8 16 We have a (tiny) little sister, 

and breasts, not as yet, has she ; 
But what shall we do with our sister, 

when the time draws near for her wooing ? 17 



7,10 (e) it goes down smoothly 29 to my dearest 

6, 3 (a) who feeds on the (dark purple) lilies i 7,11 (0) my dear one's am I 

2, 2 (y) As the lily stands amid thistles, 5 so amid maidens my darling. 6 

1, 6 (6) but I have not kept my own vineyard 15 

2,15 Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, 

Destroying vineyards, our vineyards in blossom ! 



6 



Hebraioa 



No. 4 



8, 9 If she be like a wall (barring lovers), 

we will place on it copings of silver ; 18 e 
If a door (open wide to all lovers), 

we will bar it with boards (made) of cedar. 

10 Albeit a wall am I, thus far, 22 

my bosom is now (growing) like towers, 23 
And to them I am (verily) seeming 

ready to surrender (the fortress). 24 



5 Ah, would that thou wert my brother, 26 

nursed at the breast of my mother ! 27 

Then wheresoever I met thee 

I might kiss, and none would contemn me. 

To my mother's house I would lead thee,^ 

Ho the chamber of her who there bore me," 
And make thee drink wine that is spiced 29 

and the must of pomegranate 30 fruitage/ 



* 




* 






* 








* 


* 


















* 








* 








* 




* 




* 


* 


* 


* 










* 


* 






* 












* 






* 










* 




* 



4. One sole Love. 

11 A vineyard 1 a there is at Baal-hammon, 3 - 
a vineyard entrusted to keepers ; 4 
Any man could have had for its fruitage 
a thousand (shekels) of silver. 5 



1,11 (e) Strings of gold (coins) will we make thee,i 9 
studded with (tiny bells of) silver.20 

8, 2 (£) I would bring thee (rj) thou wouldst teach me 28 7 } i3c (0) there will I give 

thee my love 

3 (0 His left arm under my head, 

and his right arm clinging around me. 

4 O maidens of Jerusalem, lo, I beseech you 
That ye stir not nor startle our loving, 

before our fill we have drunken. 3i 



8,11 (a) of Solomon was ; 



No. 5 



The Book of Canticles 



7 



8,12 In my sole charge 6 is my vineyard, 7 

nought else on earth do I care for : 8 
(I will resign) to thee, Solomon, the thousand 9 — 
but two hundred (fall) to the keepers! 10 



8 Solomon's 11 queens (numbered) sixty, 

his concubines eighty in number ; P 

9 But one is my dove, 12 (and one only,) 

and one alone my perfection. 13 

From her birth 14 she was pure (and was spotless,) 
unsullied 15 she was from an infant. 14 

The maidens who see her admire her, 16 

both queens and concubines praise her. 

5. Protection from all Dangers. 1 

8 From Lebanon with me thou mayst journey, 
from Lebanon with me, my bride, 2 
Descend from the height of Amana, 3 

from the heights of Shenir 4 and Hermon, 5 

From the resting-places of lions, 6 

from mountains (haunted by) leopards. 7 

fit, si£. *li »l£, ^£ 

•yfz vF ?F * vfT 'yfS ^? vf* vf: 7(7 7fS 

viz <!s ili llf. *lL vU. vL. <Az. 

* TJC rjr 7fr *n *F vfC 



6. Beauty of the Lover. 

5, 2 As I lay on my bed at night-time, 

I was longing for my own dear one i 1 
My heart 2 was awake though I slumbered — 
Hark, hark ! 3 my dear one is knocking ! 

4 Make open (thy door) to me, sister, 5 

my darling, my dove, 6 my perfection ; 7 
My head with dew-drops is dripping, 8 

and my locks with the vapor of night-time. 



6, 8 (0) and (other) young women without number n 



8 



Hebraioa 



No. 6 



in 5, 3 9 Of my tunic I now am divested, 10 
how again can I resume it ? 
My feet I have (just now) been laving, 
how again can I pollute them ?" 

iv 4 His hand then my dear one inserted 

where, in the door, 12 was the (key-) hole ; 13 
My heart leaped 14 at his (impetuous) wooing, 15 
all my being was stirred to its deepest. 16 

v 5 When I arose to undo the fastening, 01 

(and clasped) the (strong) bar by the handles, 17 
My hands with myrrh (straightway) were dripping, 18 
and my fingers with (odorous) stacte. 19 

vi 6 But when I unbarred for my dear one, 

my dear one was gone and had vanished. 
I longed for him, but could not find him ; 
I called, but he gave me no answer. 13 

vn 8 22 (Ho!) maidens,? (lo!) I beseech you, 

(perchance,) if you find my own dear one, 
Will you not give him assurance 

that with love (for him) I am pining ? 

vm 6, 1 23 Whither is gone thine own dear one, 
O fairest thou among women ? 24 
(Say,) Whither is vanished thy dear one ? 

(Oh, tell, ere) we help thee to seek him ! 25 

ix 5, 9 Wherein differs thy dear one from others, 26 
O fairest thou among women ? 24 
Wherein differs thy dear one from others 26 
that thus thou dost fervently beg us ? 



5, 5 (a) for my dear one 

7 (0) I met watchmen, men who fared forth through the city, they hifme, wounded me, of 

my mantle (of gauze) 20 they deprived me, the watchers of the walls 21 

8 (v) of Jerusalem 



No. 6 



The Book of Canticles 



9 



5,10 My dear one is white and is ruddy, 27 x 
preeminent he, in ten thousand ; 

11 Golden his head, yea, like fine gold, 28 

5 his hair is as black as a raven. 

12 His eyes are (the color of) dovelets 29 xi 

that sit by a pool that is brimming, 6 30 
And bathe in (the pool's) milky whiteness, 31 

which is fringed with (dark purple) lilies. 32 

13 His beard 33 is a bed of spices, 34 *n 

where every sweet herb is growing ; 30 
His mustache 36 is like (dark purple) lilies, 32 
dropping with (odorous) stacte. 19 



14 His arms are poles that are golden, 37 

bedecked with rubies of Tarshish ; 38 
His body is one piece of ivory 39 

adorned with (azure blue) sapphires. 40 

15 His legs are white marble columns 

set up in pure golden sockets. 41 
Like Lebanon is his appearance 42 

and, like (its) cedars, ^majestic. 43 

16 (The speech of) his mouth 45 is (sheer) sweetness, 

nought is he but charm (and attraction), — 
This is my friend, my own dear one, 46 

O maidens (who live) in Jerusalem. 47 

7. The Bride 

to the Bridegroom on the Morrow after the Marriage. 1 

1,16 "Behold, thou art fair my own dearest, 

aye, sweet ; p our bed will be green. 3 

17 Of our home all the rafters are cedarn, 

and (its walls are) all paneled with cypress. 4 

5,11 (5) his locks 12 (e) by brooks of water 16 (£) a youth** 



XIII 



XIV 



XV 



1,15 (a) Fair indeed art thou my darling, 

thou art fair, thine eyes are (the color of) dovelets. 2 

16 (/3) aye 



10 Hebraica No. 7 

ii 2, 3 As the apple 5 amid trees of the forest, 
so amid youths is my dearest. 6 
I delight to dwell under its shadow, 

and sweet to my taste is its fruitage. 

in 4 To the tavern where wine flows 7 he brought me, 
1 Love ' was the sign hanging out there. 8 
5 He refreshed me with cates made of raisins 9 

and with apples 5 appeased all my cravings. 97 

iv 6 On his left arm my head was reclining, 

while his right arm around me was clinging. 11 
1,12 As long as the King 12 stayed there feasting, 13 
my spikenard its scent was exhaling. 14 

v 13 My sachet of myrrh 15 was my dear one, 16 

scenting my breasts with its perfume, 17 
14 My dearest is a cluster of henna 18 

(blooming) in Engedi's gardens. 19 

vi 2 With kisses of thy mouth do thou kiss me, 
for thy love than wine is far sweeter. 20 
3 s Thy name is thrice-clarified perfume ; 21 

all maidens therefore do love thee. 6 



vn 4 Take me with thee ! (Oh, come,) let us hasten ! 

* to thy chamber, 7 O King, 12 do thou lead me ! 

There let us rejoice and make merry, 

and be drunken, not with wine, but with loving. 20 * 

vm 2,16 My dearest is mine, and his am I, 

who feeds on the (dark purple) lilies 23 
17 Till the breeze (of the morning) 24 arises, 
and away the shadows are fleeing. 



2, 5 (v) for with love (for him) I am pining 10 

1, 3 (S) with regard to fragrance thy perfumes are sweet 4 (e) rightly do they love thee 
5, 1 (£) Eat and drink, friends, and be drunken with loving ! 22 



No. 8 



The Book of Canticles 



11 



2 (Do thou spring to the) feast, 25 O my dearest, 

like a buck of gazelles 26 or a pricket, 27 71 
(To the feast) on the mountains of myrrh, 29 

(to the feast) on the hillocks of incense ! 29e 31 

7 O maidens, 1 lo, I beseech you, 

by the gazelles 33 and the hinds 34 of the meadows, 35 
That ye stir not nor startle" our loving 
before our fill we have drunken. 40 

8. The Maiden's Beauty. 1 

4, 1 Fair, indeed, art thou, my darling, 2 

a thine eyes are (the color of) dovelets. 3/3 
Like a flock of (black) goats 5 are thy ringlets, — 
(goats) bounding 6 over Grilead's 7 mountains. 

2 To (ewes) thy teeth may be likened, 

newly shorn and fresh from the washing, 8 
(and those ewes bear,) all of them, twinlings, 9 
and none among them is barren. 10 

3 Thy lips are like ribbons of crimson, 

and thy mouth (between them) is beauteous ; 
Like rifts 11 in pomegranates, thy temples, 

(as they are disclosed) through thy veiling. 

4 Thy neck is like the Tower of David, 12 

constructed to ward off (besiegers), 13 
Whereon are v the thousand of targes, 14 

all shields of the (most valiant) heroes. 

1, 9 To the horses 15 in Pharaoh's chariots, 

my darling, 16 (here) do I liken thee ; 
10 Thy cheeks are embellished with trappings, 17 

Thy neck with beads strung (in bandlets). 18 

2,17 (17) on the cloven mountains 28 [spices ! 29 

8,14 (0) Bolt, 30 O my dearest, like a buck of gazelles 26 or a pricket 27 on the mountains of 
1, 7 (t) of Jerusalem 32 

8, 5b (k) I will startle 36 thee under the apple, 37 

where thy mother conceived thee,^ where she who bore thee conceived. 39 

4, 1 O) thou art fair (j3) through thy veiling * 4 (y) hung 



12 Hebraioa No. 8 

vi 4, 5 Like two (lovely) fawns is thy bosom, 

or like a gazelle's (pretty) twinlings. 19 5 
7 Fair art thou all over, my darling, 

nor in thee is aught of a blemish. 

vii 6, 4 Fair (indeed) art thou, my darling, 166 

and, like Jerusalem, comely.^ 
5 Turn thou thine eyes away from me, 

they are to me (truly) bewildering. 7 ' 

viii 4, 9 0 With one glance thou hast shattered my reason, 26 
with (only) one (link) of thy necklace ! 
10 How fair is thy love, O my sister ! 1 

thy love than wine is far sweeter ! 28 

ix 11 From thy lips'' virgin honey is dropping, 29 

A sweet milk is (stored) under thy tongue, 31 
No spices can equal ^thy perfumes, 32 

"thy garments yield Lebanon's fragrance. 33 

x 12 A garden 3 * hedged in is my sister,^ 

a spring 0 in a closely sealed fountain,* 
15 A well 36 of (fresh) living 37 waters 

down from Mount Lebanon flowing. 38 



4, 5 (5) feeding on the (dark purple) lilies 

6 till the breeze (of the morning) arises, 
and away the shadows are fleeing, 
I will go to the mountain of myrrh 
and to the hillock of incense.20 

6, 4 (e) like Tirzah2i (£) striking awe like an army with banners 22 

5 (t?) Like a flock of (black) goats 5 are thy ringlets, — 

(goats) bounding6 over Gilead's7 mountains.23 

6 To ewes 2 * thy teeth may be likened, 

which have just come up from the washing,^ 
And (those ewes bear,) all of them twinlings, 9 
and none among them is barren. 10 

7 25 Like rifts in pomegranates, 11 thy temples 

(as they are disclosed) through thy veiling. 

4, 9 (0) thou hast shattered my reason, 26 O my sister, bride^ 

10 (t) bride 27 11 (k) bride 27 (A) honey 30 and 10 (/a) the fragrance of 

11 (v) the fragrance of 12 (£) bride 27 ( 0 ) hedged in 15 (n) a garden fountain 35 



No. 9 



The Book of Canticles 



13 



4,13 Thy supply 39 is a grove of pomegranates 40 
(full) of the most luscious fruitage ; p 
14 Of cinnamon, 43 sweetflag, 44 and spikenard, 42 
and every plant yielding incense. 45 9 

16 Awake, O northwind ! 

come thou south wind ! 
Fan my garden, 

exhale its spices ! 50 



9. The Bride's fair Garden. 1 

The Bride. 

4,16 b May my dear one enter his garden 2 

and eat of its luscious fruitage ! 3 

7,12 Oh come, let us forth, 4 my own dear one, a 
for a night among flowers of henna ! 6 

13 Let us go to the vineyards 7 at daybreak, 8 

let us look if the grapevines are budding, 
If the blossoms of the vines are opening, 

and if the pomegranates 9 are blooming. 

14 The mandrakes 10 are breathing their fragrance, 

at our door is most luscious fruitage, 3 
Now ripe or ripened aforetime, 11 

which I, for thee, dearest, have treasured. 

The Bridegroom. 

6,11 I went to the garden of nut-trees 12 

to look at the fruits of the valley, 13 
To look if the grapevines were budding, 8 

and if the pomegranates were blooming. 14 



4,13 (p) henna*i and spikenard.42 
14 (o-) Myrrh,*6 and saffron,*? and aloes,* 8 and all the most precious spices.* 9 



7,12 (a) to the fields 5 



14 



Hebraica 



No. 10 



5, 1 I entered my sister's 15 / 3 (fair) garden, 2 
I culled my myrrh and my spices, 
I ate, with my honey, my honeycomb, 

I quaffed off my wine and my milk. 17 



The Bride. 

6, 2 My dear one came down to his garden, 2 
to beds of spices 2 (most fragrant), 
To feed 18 in the (fairest of) gardens, 2 

picking the (dark purple) lilies. 18 



10. Springtide of Love. 1 

2, 8 Hark ! dearest mine ! 

Behold, he is coming, 
Over mountains leaping, 50 

over hillocks skipping ; a 
9 Behold, he stands there 
behind our wall. 
From windows 52 I 60 peer down, 
through lattices peeping. ^ 
10 Arise, my darling! 

ah, come, my fair one! 



11 For, look thou, past is the winter, 49 

and rains 53 no longer are falling ; 

12 * The ground is covered with flowers, 

and birds fill the air with warbling ; 5 * 
We hear the cooing of turtles, 55 

to our home is come back the swallow. 

13 The fruit on figtrees is ripening, 56 

and fragrance exhales from the v grapevines. 
Arise, my darling! 

ah, come, my fair one! 



5, 1 (0) bride is 

2, 9 (a) my dearest is like a buck of gazelles or like a pricket 51 
10 (0) my dearest began to speak and said to me 



(v) blossoming6i 



No. 11 



The Book of Canticles 



15 



2,14 My dove 58 in the rock-cleft, 59 

in the cliff's recesses, 59 
Open, my sister, 

come, my perfection ! 1 
Thy face show me, 

thy voice grant me ! 8 
For sweet thy voice, 

and fair thy face. 
Arise, my darling ! 

ah, come, my fair one! 1 



11. Pasture thy Kids! 1 

1, 7 Oh, tell me thou, my beloved one, 

a where at high noon wilt thou tarry ? ; 
Why (dearest) astray should I wander 4 
amid the flocks of thy comrades ? 



8 If, indeed, thou know not the pathway ,^ 

of the flocks, do thou follow the foot-prints. 6 
(There,) then, thy kids thou mayst pasture 7 
near to the tents of the shepherds ! 8 



12. Omnia vincit Amor. 

3, 1 As I lay on my bed at night-time, 

for him whom I love was I longing : a 

2 2 1 will rise and fare forth through the city, 

both through streets that are wide and are narrow.^ 

3 I met men 7 who fared forth through the city: 

Have ye seen my beloved ? (I asked them) ; 

4 But scarce had I gone a step further, 

when before me, lo ! stood my loved one ! 



8,13 (8) O thou dwelling in the gardens, companions listening, thy voice grant me! 66 



1, 7 (a) where wilt thou pasture ? 2 8 (£) O thou fairest among women ! 5 



3, 1 (a) I longed for him but could not find him 1 

2 (|8) I long for him whom I love, I longed for him but could not find him 3 

3 (y) the watchmen* 



16 Hebraica No. 12 

3 I clasped him and would not release him, 5 

and then, lo, I said to my loved one : 7 

8, 6 Hang me close to thy heart like a signet, 38 

on thy hand, like a ring, 8 (do thou wear me !) 38 



For Love as Death is strong, 39 

and Passion as Sheol unyielding. 40 

Its flames are 41 flames of fire, 

its flashes are 42 flashes of lightning. 43 

Nothing 6 is able to quench it,* 

neither can any streams drown it. 

If one 7 ' should resign for it 9 all his possessions, 
could any man therefore contemn him ? 9 



3, 4 (5) Till I had brought him to the house of my mother, 
to the chamber of her that there bore me,5 

5 O maidens of Jerusalem^ lo, I beseech you, 

by the gazelles and the hinds of the meadows, 
That ye stir not nor startle our loving, 
before our fill we have drunken ! 



8, 7 («) much water 



(£) Love 



(i?) a man 



(0) for Love 



The Book of Canticles 



17 



Notes on Canticles.* 

Renan says that Canticles, commonly known as the Song of Solomon, 
and Ecclesiastes are a few profane pages which, by some curious acci- 
dent, have found their way into 'that strange and admirable volume 
termed the Bible they are just like a love-ditty and a little essay of 
Voltaire which have gone astray among the folios of a theological library, f 
Ecclesiastes is the latest book of OT ; it was written about the time of v 
our Savior, not by a theologian but by a man of the world, probably a 
physician.^ Nor can Cant, be ascribed to Solomon. Solomon in Cant. 
(cf. n. 11 on No. 3) is merely the impersonation of glory and splendor, 
and the passages in which Solomon refers to the bridegroom seem to 
be subsequent insertions (cf. n. 11 on No. 1). Cant, is not the work of 
one poet but a late post-Exilic collection of popular nuptial songs and 
love-ditties which may all have been sung at weddings, although they 
were not originally composed for this purpose. || They were probably 
compiled in the neighborhood of Damascus § after the beginning of the ✓ 
Seleucidan era, 312 b. c. 

Gratz advanced the theory (1871) that Cant, was influenced by the 
idyls of Theocritus, who flourished about 270 b. c, under Ptolemy II. 
Philadelphus. There are some striking parallels between certain lines 
of the Greek bucolic poet and some passages in Cant.,** and it must be 
admitted that Cant, may have been compiled after the time of Theoc- 
ritus ; but there is no evidence to justify the conclusion that Cant, 
was influenced by the idyls of Theocritus. All the points of contact 

* Note the following abbreviations :— AoF = Hugo Winckler, Altorientalische Forschun- 
gen (Leipzig, 1893 ff .) ; — AV = Authorized Version ; — AVM = Authorized Version, margin ; — 
AW = Friedrich Delitzsch, Assyrisches WOrterbuch, parts I-III (Leipzig, 1886-1890) ; — BA = 
Delitzsch and Haupt, Beitrdge zur Assyriologie (Leipzig, 1889 ff.) ; — Cant.= Canticles ; — D = 
Dalman, Pal&stinischer Diwan (Leipzig, 1901); — E = East; — EB = Cheyne-Black, Encyclo- 
paedia Biblica (New York, 1899 ff.) ;— ff. = and following; — <g = Septuagint ; — <S A = Codex 
Alexandrinus ; — <g p = Codex Ephrcemi Syri rescriptus Parisiensis (C) ; — (g s = Codex Sinaiti- 
cus (&$) ;— (gv= Codex Vaticanus (B) ; — H = Haupt, Difficult Passages in the Song of Songs 
in Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 21, pp. 51-73 ;— HW = Friedrich Delitzsch, Assyri- 
sches Handivdrterbuch (Leipzig, 1896) ; — 3J = Vulgate (Jerome) ; — JHUC — Johns Hopkins 
University Circulars; — JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society ; — JQR = Jewish 
Quarterly Review ; — KB = E. Schrader's Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek; — 1. = line ;— 11. = 
lines; — LXX = Septuagint ; — M = W. Max Muller, Die Liebespoesie der alten Agypter (Leip- 
zig,1899) ; — H = Masoretic Text; — N = North ; — n. = note; — nn. = notes ; — NT = New Testa- 
ment ; — N W = Northwest ; — OT = Old Testament ; — RV = Revised Version ; — RVM = Revised 
Version, margin ; — S = South ; — g> = Peshita ; — g>H = Syro-Hexaplar ; — 2 = Symmachos ; — 
SBOT = The Sacred Books of the Old Testament, in Hebrew, edited by Paul Haupt ; — SE = 
Southeast ; — SW = Southwest ; — v. = verse ; — vv. = verses ; — ZA = Zeitschrift filr Assyriolo- 
gie; — ZAT = Zeitschrift filr die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, edited by B. Stade ; — ZDMG 
= Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft ; — W = West. 

t See my paper on Difficult Passages in the Song of Songs in the Journal of Biblical 
Literature, vol. 21, p. 51. 

t See my paper on the Book of Ecclesiastes in Oriental Studies (Boston, 1894), pp. 244 
and 250. 

II Cf. D 28, 2 ; 109 ; 188, n. 3 ; 324. 

§ See Hugo Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, first series, p. 295. Cf. M 9, n. 3. 
** Cf. n. 5 on No. 7, n. 15 on No. 8, and especially n. 18 on No. 9. 



18 



Hebraica 



between the two collections of songs may be explained as due to their 
having been composed at the same period * under similar conditions of 
environment. f There are just as many parallels in ancient Egyptian 
erotic poetry; e. g., the Egyptian lover addressed his sweetheart as 'my 
sister/ J just as we find this term of endearment in Nos. 8 and 9, where 
it is invariably followed by the explanatory gloss kali a 'bride' (cf. 
n. 27 on No. 8). 

The bride in Cant, is not a personification of wisdom which Solomon 
is trying to win ; nor do Solomon and the Shulamite represent Christ 
and the Church, || or the love of Jhvh to His people ; still less can we 
adopt the traditional Jewish view which considers Cant, to be an alle- 
gorical sketch of the history of Israel from the Exodus § to the coming 
of the future Messiah. Cant, is neither allegorical, nor typical, nor 
dramatic; it is simply a collection of popular love-ditties, and these 
erotic songs are not all complete (cf. Nos. 3 and 5), neither are they 
^iven in their proper order. 

Goethe says, in the notes to his Westdstlicher Divan,** that Cant, 
is 'the most tender and inimitable expression of passionate yet graceful 
love that has come down to us.*f Unfortunately, says Goethe, the 
poems cannot be fully enjoyed since they are fragmentary, telescoped, 
or driven into one another, and mixed up ; but it is delightful to divine 
the conditions under which the poets lived. The mild air of the most 
charming district of Canaan breathes through the poem, cosy rustic 
conditions, vineyards, gardens, beds of spices, some urban limitations,*! 
and a royal court in the background.*! But the principal theme is an 
ardent longing of youthful hearts, seeking, finding, repulsing,*§ attract- 
ing, under various most simple conditions. We thought repeatedly of 
selecting and arranging something out of this charming confusion, but 
this enigmatic and inextricable condition invests those few leaves with 
a peculiar charm. Many a time well-meaning methodical minds have 

* For Greek loanwords in Cant. cf. n. 17 on No. 1. 
t See, however, n. 18 on No. 9. 

% Cf. Maspero, Etudes ggyptiennes, 1,258, and W. Max Mtiller, Die Liebespoesie der alten 
Agypter (Leipzig, 1899), p. 5, 1. 1 ; p. 8, 11. 2. 4. 11 ; p. 46 (ad p. 9). I cite Muller's work as M. 

II Cf. the headings in AV. 

§ Cant, is therefore read in the synagogues on the eighth day of Passover. 

** Goethe's Werke, herausgegeben im Auftrage der Grossherzogin Sophie von Sachsen, 
vol. 7, Weimar, 1888, p. 8. Cf. P. Holzhausen, Goethe und seine tlbersetzung des Hohenliedes 
in Deutsche Revue, March 1896, pp. 370-372. This paper is not accessible to me at present. 
Nor have I seen Joseph Halevy, Les chants nuptiaux des Cantiques, in Revue s6mitique, 9, 
pp. 97-116. 193-219. 289-296. 

*t This will strike many as an exaggeration. 

*% This is not correct ; ' watchmen ' in Nos. 6 and 12 represents a subsequent addition. 

*|| There are only allusions to the hangings in Solomon's palace and to Solomon's harem 
{cf. n. 11 on No. 3 and n. 11 on No. 4). In the other passages in which Solomon is mentioned, 
this name represents a scribal expansion, while ' King' {cf. No. 1, n. 11) refers to the King 
of the Wedding Festival, i. e., the bridegroom. Cf. also ' Pharaoh's chariots,' 1, 9. 

*§In No. 6 (5,6) the lover does not reject the maiden. Only the second stanza of No. 11 
might, perhaps, be said to imply a rejection. 



A 



The Book of Canticles 



19 



been tempted to find or establish an intelligible connection, but a sub- 
sequent student must do the work all over again.' 

Cheyne, too, in his article on Cant, in the Encyclopedia Biblica, 
col. 685, speaks of 'the impossibility of recovering the original songs (if 
songs they were) and of retracing the plan (if plan he had) of the hypo- 
thetical collector.' 

While I admit that it may be impossible to recover the original 
songs and to retrace the plan of the collector, I believe that the tradi- 
tional arrangement may be very much improved, and the Received Text 
freed from a great many subsequent additions and superfluous repeti- 
tions which have crept into the text. In this re-arrangement the songs 
certainly become much more intelligible than they are in their traditional 
'charming confusion.' It makes very little difference in what order the 
various songs follow each other. The object of the present study is not 
the restoration of the sequence of the songs in the original collection, 
but the restoration of the individual songs. Whether No. 2 is placed 
before No. 8 or vice versa, is immaterial. It seems, however, that No. 9 
is the sequel of No. 8. No. 11 might be inserted after No. 5, but this is 
of minor importance. 

The 'charming confusion' of the Received Text may, to a certain 
extent, be due to the desire to make certain objectionable passages less 
obvious. If 4,16 b is followed by 5,1, the erotic imagery is not plain; 
but if the stanzas 7,12-14 and 6,11 are inserted between 4,16 b and 5,1, 
and if 5, 1 is followed by 6, 2, the erotic allusions can hardly be mis- 
understood. In the same way the last verse of the Book becomes clear 
as soon as it is combined with 2,17. Certain words are entirely unobjec- 
tionable as long as there is no special association of ideas ; but if they 
are combined, it is a different matter. 

I do not claim to have restored the original order of the Book. 
The arrangement may have varied at an early date ; it may even have 
been injudicious and inappropriate from the beginning. We have in 
Cant, not a divan collected by the poet himself, but a collection of 
popular songs by various authors, made by a later compiler. Conse- 
quently the main task of the Biblical critic is not to restore the 
sequence of the various poems in the original collection, but to restore 
the original text of the individual poems. 

This cannot be accomplished without due regard to the metrical 
form of the poems. The love-songs in Cant, are generally composed in 
stanzas of two meshalim* or double-lines; each double-line consists 
of two hemistichs, and each hemistich has three beats (cf. D xxiii, last 
paragraph). Hemistichs with two beats (e. g. in the first and the last 
stanza of No. 10 ; in the last stanza of No. 8 ; or in the illustrative quota- 
tion (cf. n. 6 on No. 1) to 1,6, viz. 2,15, No. 3, 8) are exceptional. f 
Songs consisting of stanzas of four hemistichs are still the most 

* See my remarks in the critical notes on Proverbs, in The Polychrome Bible, p. 33, 1. 3. 
t Also in ancient Egyptian poetry hemistichs with two beats are comparatively rare ; 
cf. M 12, 1. 19. 



20 



Hebraica 



common form of popular urban poems as well as of the songs accom- 
panying dances among the Palestinian Fellahs and Bedouins (D xvii).* 
For songs with only two beats in the hemistichs cf. D xx, Nos. 15. 16, 
and xxiii, second paragraph. Between the beats we find one, or two, or 
three, or even four unstressed syllables, and occasionally there is no 
unstressed syllable at all between two beats. f The last word of a hemi- 
stich may be accented either on the ultima or on the penult, just as in 
the modern Palestinian songs (D xxiii). 

The rhythm of my translation has been very much improved by the 
kind assistance of the distinguished co-editor of The Polychrome Bible, 
Horace Howard Furness. The object of our translation is not to enable 
a beginner to spell out the words of the Heb. text, but to render the 
sense as faithfully as possible, imitating the poetic form of the original 
as far as this is feasible in English without departing too much from 
the Hebrew. 

My translation and explanation of Cant, was completed before I 
began to study Gustaf H. Dalman's Paldstinischer Diwan (Leipzig, 
1901). I have not found it necessary to make any changes in my render- 
ing,;); but I have added some references to passages in the songs col- 
lected by Dalman, which afford parallels to the songs in Cant. I cite 
Dalman's book as D. The number after D indicates the page of 
Dalman's book, the next figure, separated by a comma, refers to the 
number of the poem on that particular page, unless the second number 
is preceded by 1. or n., referring to the lines, or to the notes at the 
bottom of the page, respectively; e. g. D 205, 7 refers to the poem No. 7 
on p. 205 of Dalman's book ; D 205, 1. 7 to page 205, line 7 ; and D 205, 
n. 2 to page 205, footnote 2. It is a pity that D has not numbered the 
lines of his pages and provided his book with an alphabetical index. 
He should also have numbered the stanzas of the poems. Finally, he 
might have added an index of the passages in Cant, illustrated by the 
songs of his collection. The only reference to Cant, which D gives is 
on p* 226, n. 1. The study of his Palestinian Divan would be much 
easier if D had given the original text not only in transliteration but 
also in Arabic characters. A transliterated Arabic text is just as difficult 
to understand as a phonetically spelled English text or a Greek text in 
Roman transliteration. However, D is a most welcome publication, 
although it does not, perhaps, throw any more new light on Cant, than do 
other Mohammedan love-songs. || His corrections of certain statements 
made by Wetzstein are especially valuable (e. g. D xxxii, n. 1 ; 267, 
n. 2; 295, n. 3; 296). 

* In the same way ancient Egyptian love-ditties are generally composed in stanzas of 
four hemistichs with three beats in each hemistich ; cf. M 11, 11. 8. 23. 

t M 46, ad p. 10, says that in ancient Egyptian poetry there are always some unstressed 
syllables between two beats, either one, or two, or three, but not four. 

$ Except in No. 8, where I had translated "OTQilb , in 4,9, by 'thou hast stolen my 
heart' instead of 'thou hast deprived me of my reason' (cf. n. 26 on No. 8) ; and in No. 2, 
where I have substituted, in 7,2, 'chopines' for 'sandals' after having read D 257, n. 2. 
Cf. H, n. 68. 

II Cf. e. g. E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, vol. 2, pp. 76-83 ; 
A. Socin and H. Stumme, Diwan aus Centralarabien (Leipzig, 1900). 



No. 1 



The Book of Canticles 



21 



Notes on No. 1. 

(1) This seems to be a later addition ; cf. n. 11. 

(2) This is not the procession of the bridegroom (Siegfried); nor does 
it refer to the procession of the groomsmen carrying the threshing-board 
(ijJ^jJl ^yi lu a h ed-diras) from the barn (^JC^ matban) to 

the threshing-floor of the village, where it is put on a platform and cov- 
ered with cushions embroidered in gold, &c, serving as a mock throne 
(*Joyo martabe) for the King (cf. n. 11) and Queen, i. e., the newly 
married couple (Budde); but this song describes the solemn procession 
((j*^jtJ! **j zaffat el 'ariis)* of the bride from the house of her 

parents to the house of the bridegroom. Wetzstein states (on p. 170 
of Delitzsch's commentary) that, if the bride lives in another village, 
she is escorted to the village of the bridegroom by a mounted and 
armed escort (see n. 15) composed of the groomsmen, the 'youths 
of the bridegroom ' ( { j**j^x}\ ^Lyi sabab el-'aris; cf. D 210, Nos. 1. 
2). Martial games are performed by them before the bride and the 
bridesmaids ; f cf. n. 15. The groomsmen act as vvfxcf>ay o)y ol or irapavvfx- 
<f)LOL (cf. the term viol rov wfAcfatovos 'the sons of the bridal chamber;' 
Matt. 9,15; Mark 2,19; Luke 5,34; also D 187, 4 and 191). 

Wetzstein's remarks on the Syrian threshing-board in connection 
with the nuptial ceremonies refer chiefly to the neighborhood of Damas- 
cus and a part of the Hauran, and must not be applied to Palestine 
(cf. D vii, n. 1 and p. xii). The threshing-board plays no part in the 
Palestinian wedding festivals ; nor is there any reference to the thresh- 
ing-board in Cant. The terms King and Queen are, however, still 
applied to the bridegroom and the bride in certain districts west of the 
Jordan (cf. n. 11)4 But Wetzstein's observations must not be generalized. 
D x states that a Bedouin song may occasionally not be fully understood 
in a village of the immediate vicinity. Sometimes the person who com- 
municates a song may be unable to understand all the passages of the 
poems which he collected. 

(3) The village of the bridegroom was probably situated on a hill so 
that the procession came up from the meadows between the two villages. 
Cf. e. g. the pictures of Qaryet el-'Ineb on p. 90 of the translation of 
Judges, in The Polychrome Bible, or the pictures of Beth-el, op. cit., 
Joshua, p. 61 (see ibid., p. 65, 1. 5) or Upper Beth-horon, p. 71 (see ibid., 
p. 72, 1. 4). 

(4) The pasture-land. 

(5) It was customary to carry at the head of a caravan, in a cresset 
mounted upon a long pole, a beacon-fire the blaze of which served as a 

* According to Wetzstein, 5t>s el-faride. This may mean 'separation, leave- 

taking, send-off. 1 

t According to Wetzstein, i^j el-f arradat. 

t The Jews in Russia and Palestine, I am told, still call the bridegroom ' King. 1 



22 



Hebraioa 



No. 1 



guiding-light at night, while the smoke signaled the direction during 
the day. This is the origin of the legend that Jhvh went before the 
Israelites in the wilderness, by day in a pillar of a cloud to show them 
the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, so that they 
could travel by day and by night (Exod. 13,21 ; cf. 14,19; Num. 14,14; 
Deut. 1,33; see also Is. 4,5; Neh. 9,12. 19; Ps. 78,14. According to 
the Priestly Code the cloud was over the Tent of Meeting by day, and 
by night fire beaconed there (cf. Exod. 40, 38 ; Num. 9, 15). Curtius 
(V, 2, 7) states in his history of the exploits of Alexander the Great that, 
when the Macedonian conqueror marched through Babylonia and 
Susiana, a long pole, which was widely visible, was over the royal 
tent, and a signal, which could be seen everywhere, beaconed from it, 
fire by night and smoke by day (perticam, quae undique conspici posset, 
supra praetorium statuit, ex qua signum eminebat, pariter omnibus 
conspicuum, observabatur ignis noctu, fumus inter diu). 

(6) That is, the bridegroom. This seems to be a misplaced variant 
(cf. nn. 14. 20) to the opening double-line, just as 6,12 is a misplaced 
illustrative quotation to v. 10 (see n. 21), or 8,5 b an illustrative quota- 
tion to 2,7 b (see No. 7, n. 39). Cf. n. 29 on No. 2 and nn. 6. 15. 18 on 
No. 3. 

(7) The bride is perfumed so much that the sweet smell may be 
noticed at a distance. In Prov. 7, 17 the bed of the adulteress is per- 
fumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon (see nn. 43. 48 on No. 8). In 
Ps. 45,9 the garments of the bridegroom (i. e., King Alexander Balas of 
Syria at his wedding with the Egyptian princess Cleopatra, the daughter 
of King Ptolemy VI. Philometor, which was celebrated at Ptolemais in 
150 b. o., with the Maccabee Jonathan present as an honored guest ; cf. 
1 Mace. 10,58) are fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia.* 

D 277, 1. 5 we read : 'The fragrance of her mouth is like a box of the 
dealer in spices ;' D 286 the brown ones and the white ones (see n. 7 on 
No. 3) are addressed as 'boxes of civet which the merchant brought from 
below Bagdad.' D 7, b a maiden is addressed as a 'fragrant bunch;' 
D 181, 1. 3 the hair of the bride is said to be perfumed with powdered 
cloves and civet (a pomade consisting of cooking butter and powdered 
cloves and civet); D 245, 1. 21 the hair over the forehead of a maiden is 
said to be bathed in musk and ambergris. Cf. M 45, n. 9. 

(8) The gummy resinous exudation from Commiphora Myrrha, a 
spiny shrub in Arabia and Eastern Africa, which was used for incense, 
perfumery, &c. (cf. n. 19 on No. 6). Frankincense, also called olibanum 
or gum thus, was an aromatic gum-resin obtained from balsamic plants 
of the genus Boswellia (especially Boswellia Carteri) in Arabia and 
Eastern Africa. Cf. n. 46 on No. 8. 

(9) Powdered perfumes. 

(10) This word means not only a dealer in spices but a spicer in the 
widest sense of the term (cf. French Spicier, German Spezereihandler), a 

*Cf. Dr. Albert Hagen, Die sexuelle Osphresiologie (Berlin, 1901), pp. 221. 230. 232, also 
pp. 57. 139. 181. 



No. 1 



The Book of Canticles 



23 



grocer, which meant originally a wholesale dealer (cf. French en gros, 
German Grosshdndler, Gh^ossist). The original meaning of the Heb. 
term b^1*l was peddler, hawker. 

(11) That is the bridegroom (cf. No. 7, stanzas iv and vii). Solomon 
seems to be a subsequent insertion (see p. 18, n. *||, and cf. the two 
glosses e and k). King is merely a name for the King of the Wedding 
Feast, i. e., the bridegroom, just as they speak in England of the May-lord 
and the May-queen, or as a lady may be referred to on the Continent as 
the Queen of the Feast or Queen of the Ball (German Ballkonigin). 
The first seven days after a wedding (cf. Gen. 29,27; Jud. 14,12; Tob. 
11,19) were called in the neighborhood of Damascus the King's Week; 
during this time the young pair play king and queen ; the best man is 
styled the vizier of the king. The names King and Queen are applied 
to the bridegroom and bride also in certain districts west of the J ordan 
(D xii) ; cf. n. 2. The idea that Cant, was intended for use on the seven 
days of the marriage festival* was suggested by Bossuet (1627-1704) 
as well as by Bishop Lowth (1710-1787); cf. Cheyne-Black's Encycl. 
Bibl., 689. 

(12) This is the name given to the royal body-guard of David ; cf. 
2 S 10,7; 23,8; 1 K 1,8. 

(13) The meter shows this to be an explanatory gloss. 

(14) This is a variant to the following double-line. Cf. nn. 6 and 
20, also No. 8, n. 49. 

(15) In former times an armed escort may have been necessary; 
afterwards it was a mere ceremony. Even in the Syrian cities no 
wedding of any importance is celebrated without some warlike display 
(D 144). In Aleppo the bridegroom is sometimes preceded by nearly 
a hundred warriors armed with swords and shields, some also with 
helmets and coats of mail (D 193, 7 ; see also D 205, n. 2). D 210, 1 the 
groomsmen (cf. n. 2) number 160, in D 210, 2 there are several hundred. 
Warlike songs are often sung at Bedouin weddings (D 144). 

(16) Cf. the Parable of the Ten Virgins where the bridegroom arrives 
at midnight (Matt. 25,6). Even in Matt. 25 the wedding is not cele- 
brated in the home of the bride, but at the house of the bridegroom (cf. 
D 193, 7 ; 206, 8). 

(17) The word used in the Hebrew text (appiryon) is a Greek 
loanword, a corruption of the Greek term <£opaov employed in the 
Septuagintal rendering of this passage. In the Mishnah (Sot a 9,14) 
the same word ■jV ta !BS appiryon (Syr. ^o-oas, j-*5as) is used for the 
bridal litter: in the last war (the Hadrianic) it was decreed that the 
bride should not proceed through the city in an appiryon OSfcblD yyft 

"pro "p'HSfcO Jlb^n tXlTO ; afterwards it was permitted again 
by the rabbis. This is the only Greek loanword found in Cant. Cf. nn. 
13. 17 on No. 8. 

(18) Cedar and cypress ; cf. IK 5,22 (Eng. 8). Even the threshing- 
board (cf. n. 2) is generally made of hard wood, walnut or oak, at least 

* In Egypt the celebration seems to have been confined to a single day ; cf. M 4, 1. 14. 



24 



Hebraica 



No. 1 



in the neighborhood of Damascus; cf. Wetzstein in Delitzsch's com- 
mentary, p. 162. 

(19) The columns supporting the top (cf. n. 22) of the portable 
couch ; it is not necessary to refer the term to the feet of the frame of 
the litter, although we read in Athen. 5,13 that the philosopher and 
tyrant Athenian appeared iir' apyvpo7r68o<s cf>opctov koI iropcpvpwv urpw^aToiv. 
Ibid. 5,5 it is stated that in a procession of Antiochus Epiphanes there 
were 200 women sprinkling perfumes (cf. n. 7) from golden urns, while 
80 women sat on <poptia with golden feet, and 500 women were carried 
on litters with silver feet. 

(20) This double-line seems to be a variant or expansion of the 
two hemistichs following. Cf. n. 6. 

(21) This passage, which is generally considered to be beyond 
emendation, may be an illustrative quotation (cf. n. 6) from some other 



poem describing the procession of the bride in a carriage (aLoouU ,* cf. 



(D 260, 1. 7 ; cf. n. 10 on No. 2). The desire of my heart (lit. soul), says 
the bride, is fulfilled (cf. Prov. 13,12. 19; also Job 6,8); I am to be 
married to him whom I love, and this has placed me on the carriage (or 
litter) of the kinsmen of a noble man, the magnificent conveyance which 
the groomsmen have brought to escort me from my home to the house 
of the bridegroom. 

The phrase / do not know at the beginning of this verse is unintel- 
ligible, unless it be the confession of a scribe stating that he is unable 
to read the beginning of the line which I have conjecturally (cf. n. 8 on 
No. 4) restored above : Fulfilled is the desire of. In the cuneiform texts 
we find occasionally the corresponding Assyrian phrase ul idi (3>TJ$ b&0 
'I do not know' used in the same way; cf. my Akkadische Sprache 
(Berlin, 1883), n. 22, p. 32, 1. 3. 

(2!2) The litter was provided with a hood, or top, and curtains lined 
with red purple cloth. 

(23) Women are addressed ; the Hebrew uses the 2 pers. fern, plur 

(24) In the Mishnah (Taanith 4,8) it is stated that before the 
destruction of the Temple passages from Cant, were sung at certain 
popular yearly festivals. We are told that on the Wood Festival 
(£v\ocj>6pia) on the 15 th of Ab, and at the close of the Day of Atonement 
it was customary for the Jerusalem maidens to go out and dance in the 
vineyards, and whosoever had no wife went there also. There was 
alternate singing, and the youths were wont to quote the last stanza of 
the present poem, Come forth, and gaze on the king there, &c. See 
Cheyne-Black, Encycl. Bibl., 683. 689 and Lazarus Goldschmidt, Der 
babyl. Talmud, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1899), pp. 509. 527. 

* A byf orm of XJ y& . 



D 256 below and 7rapoxos = 7rapdvvp.<f>os) escorted by the kinsmen of the 
bridegroom who is an ^l^t ^v^l ibn-el-akabir 'a son of the nobles' 




\ 



No. 2 



The Book of Canticles 



25 



(25) Not only the bride wore a bridal crown (see n. 19 on No. 3) but 
also the bridegroom {cf. Is. 61,10). According to Sot a 9,14 this custom 
was abandoned after the disastrous war with Vespasian. It is said, 
however, that at certain Jewish weddings the bridegroom is still 
crowned. 

(26) Arab, j^sd! jll umm el-'aris; cf. D210, 3; 298, 2. 

Notes on No. 2. 

(1) Just as there is no Syrian or Palestinian wedding of any impor- 
tance without some warlike display {cf. n. 15 on No. 1), so there is no 
wedding without dancing. Wetzstein (in Delitzsch's commentary, p. 171 ; 
cf. ibid., p. 163, n. 1 and ZDMG 22,106) states that in the neighborhood 
of Damascus the bride dances, on the evening of the wedding day, the 
sword-dance in a ring (j&j^. howesh) one half of which is formed by 
the men, and one half by the women. The bride is therefore called ^j! 
jio^i! abu-'l-howesh, the one in the ring. Her dark hair hangs 

loose over her shoulders {cf. n. 6 on No. 8), her feet are bare ; in her 
right hand she brandishes a naked sword, while she holds a handkerchief 
in her left. Fires are lighted, illuminating the scene which forms the 
climax of the wedding festivities in the country east of the Jordan. 
D 196, however, it is stated that the bystanders do not form a ring, as 
a rule, but are usually lined up opposite the dancer. D 272 we have a 
description of the sword-dance of the men in northern Palestine (D ix), 
and D 254 we find some Palestinian songs accompanying the torch-dance 

of the bride, in which she parades {^skS tit jail a)* in her wedding 
array (D 185, 2), either at the house of her parents or at the house of 
the bridegroom. The bride holds two lighted candles in her hands (D 
257, 1. 19) and executes slow movements in all directions. This ceremony, 
however, is confined chiefly to the cities ; in the villages it is not gener- 
ally observed. Cf. the Fackeltanz of the cabinet ministers at the wed- 
ding of a member of the royal family at the court of Berlin. 

(2) Cf. D 193, 1 ^.La^JI ^ XA-w^t 'his bride is the light of the 

dawn' (and the bridegroom is the light of the moon ; see n. 4). 

(3) In her bridal array and with her armed escort (see n. 15 on No. 1). 
Cf. M 46, ad p. 16 (Her love is like the advance of an army, i. e., 
irresistible). 

(4) This is one of the most common comparisons in Arabic ; cf. D 111, 
below ; 212, 2 ; 216, 1. 15 ; 226, n. 4 ; 227, 12 ; 234, 1. 2 ; 238, 1. 10 ; 245, 1. 2 ; 
251, 1. 9 ; 261, 1. 20 ; 262, 2. The beloved is often addressed 0 Moon (or 
O Full moon) ; D 66, n. 4 ; 170, 3 ; 219, 1 ; 241, 10. 

(5) Cf. D 191, 1. 20. 

means 'to unveil,' especially, to show the bridegroom the bride unveiled 
(l$l*J U*)yxS\ ^). 



26 



Hebkaica 



No. 2 



(6) In the rhythmic movements and cadenced steps of the sword- 
dance. Lit., turn round. Cf. D 231, n. 2 ; 256, 1. 11 ( Ja±) and n^H 
1*33 or IT TWtl • 

(7) That is, a maiden of Shunem,* the present Sol em, SW of the 
Sea of Galilee, S of Nazareth, N of Zer'in (Jezreel) in the ancient tribal 
district of Issachar, mentioned in the geographical list Josh. 19,18 and 
in the story of Elisha who raised the dead son of the good Shulamite 
woman who had befriended the prophet (2 K 4, 8). The term Shulamite 
denotes the bride as a maiden of the highest beauty. We read in the 
beginning of the Book of Kings, When King David was old and stricken 
in years he could get no heat, although he was covered with clothes ; 
so his servants tried to find a beautiful virgin who should lie on his 
bosom to warm him ;.f and they looked for a fair damsel throughout all 
the districts of Israel. Finally they selected a Shunamite, Abishag, who 
was a most beautiful maiden, and brought her to the King. So Shula- 
mite denotes a most beautiful maiden, just as we use the name of 
Nabal's wife, Abigail, as a popular synonym for a lady's maid ;J or as 
we call a driver Jehu after the exterminator of the dynasty of Ahab, 
Jehu, who stood with Ahab on the royal chariot, as the King's driver, 
when the prophet Elijah announced to Ahab, who had taken possession 
of the vineyard of Jezreel, the terrible prediction : In the place where 
the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick thine own blood. | 
Cf. the appellative use of Hercules, Don Juan, Don Quixote, Lovelace, 
Shylock, Joseph, Daniel, &c. 

This explanation of the term Shulamite was undoubtedly the inter- 
pretation of the LXX and of the Masorites.§ It is possible, however, 
that the name was originally not a gentilicium but an appellativum, 
meaning 'perfect' like tTBT\ (cf - n. 13 on No. 4).** In that case we should 
have to read IVElblZJ shelomith instead of FPEblTU Shulamite; cf. 
the name of Zerubbabel's daughter, Shelomith, 1 Chr. 3,19 and the 
Arabic ioo^Lww Sallame. The word shelomith, however, may have 
reminded the editors of Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of 
Dan, whose son blasphemed the name of Jhvh (Lev. 24,11), and this 
may have been looked upon as a bad omen.*f 

* For the interchange between I and n compare the modern Z er ' in = Jezreel, Bgtin 
= Beth-el, Assyr. nesu 'lion' = Heb. la is, &c. (see my paper cited on p. 27, n. *, note 104). 
The LXX had r) SowajouTis, with n, for Shulamite ; or, with transposition, yj Sou^avetTts (so in 
the cod. Vat. SovAajouns in codd. Sin. and Alex, is a correction from the Masoretic text). 
We find the same transposition in 1 K 1,3 &c. (2wju.a.veiT<.s f or ^wvaixeZTis) . For the w cf. the 
modern Arabic name of the city, S 6 1 e m . 

t Cf. the chapter on Sunamitism in Dr. Hagen's work (cited in n. 7 on No. 1) , pp. 191-219. 

$ Abigail appears as the name of a waiting gentlewoman in Beaumont and Fletcher's 
"Scornful Lady." 

II See my paper on the phrase D^TDS D*QD"I in 2 K 9, 25 in the Journal of Biblical 
Literature, vol. 21, p. 74. 

§ For the etymology of the term Masorah see my remarks in the Journal of the American 
Oriental Society, vol. 16, p. cvi. 

** ran = R-Lo ^ or *Xm$, nii2ibir> = *-L*^ . 

*t Cf. Dr. Grimm's dissertation on Euphemistic Liturgical Appendixes in the OT (Balti- 
more, 1901), pp. 3-6. 



No. 2 



The Book of Canticles 



27 



(8) Lit., in the dance of the camps or armies. 

(9) Arab. Jjui* qabqab; cf. D 257, n. 2. 

(10) Arab. o\y^\ &o! D 191, 1. 23 ; ^\ cu: D 192, 1 ; 
^L^d^I y&Jji D 257, 11. 17. 18 ; ^*$\ o^o D 260, 1. 11 ; ^ ouj 

D 298, 2. Cf. n. 21 on No. 1. 

(11) That is, circular motions, rotations, revolutions; also forms, 
shape. Cf. D 261, 1 (y-^ - D^blTf, Assyr. xinca).* 
Cf. (Jj^»^ mixnaq (pi. (JpliS?) torques, necklace (D 15, 1. 2: ^Jpl^b*); 
(J^-Li* 'to strangle' seems to be denominative (to collar). For the inter- 
change of m and n hefore q, cf. Assyr. dunqu for dumqu and modern 
Arabic (J>«*^ for ijy^ • 

(12) As flexible as. 

(13) Cf. D 263, 2 ; see also D 87, n. 5. 

(14) This is a scribal expansion derived from 4,5. In the present 
description the breasts are mentioned in v. 8 b . 

(15) As round, full, and sweet. Each of the spadices of the female 
date-palm bears a bunch of 180-200 dates. The Heb. word sinsinnlm 
(Assyr. sissinnu) denotes the spadices (German Fruchtstande), not the 
feather-shaped leaves of the date-palm or the panicles (German Rispen), 
that is, the paniculate inflorescence (German Bluthenstand). Cf. the 
Assyrian reliefs representing female date-palms with bunches of dates 
on p. 125 of the translation of Ezekiel in The Polychrome Bible. 

(16) This stanza must be a gloss ; cf. n. 20 on No. 8. 

(17) Cf. Ezek. 23,3, also D 250, 1. 3: 'I stretched out my hand for 
the pomegranates,' i. e., the breasts {cf. n. 19 on No. 8). 

(18) That is, full and stiff ; cf. Ezek. 16,7 and n. 23 on No. 3. The 
addition of the vine seems to be a tertiary gloss {cf. n. 29) ; the clusters 
refer to the bunches of dates. D 239, n. 4, however, a woman is called a 
beautiful grape. 

(19) Cf. n. 5 on No. 7. 

(20) Lit., the fragrance of thy nose like apples; she breathes 
through her nose, especially when her mouth is covered with kisses. 
Cf. M 23, xii, stanza 3. 

(21) It is as prominent and as bushy as that richly wooded head- 
land which is conspicuous from most parts of Central Palestine and one 
of the most striking features of the country. A great deal of the forest 
of Carmel has been cleared for charcoal during the past thirty years. 

(22) Heb. argaman means especially red purple, but it seems to 
be used here in the sense of our purple, i. e. violet, especially dark 
violet. In Greek, purple is often used for black: II. 17,551 a dark 
cloud is called purple. Anakreon and Lucian speak of purple hair 
{iropfyvpai ^atrat, 7rop<f)vpeo<; 7rAoKa/x,os). The famous Tyrian purple was a 
dark dusky color. Pliny 9,135 says of it, Laus ei summa in colore 

* See my paper on Babylonian Elements in the Levitic Ritual in Journal of Biblical 
Literature, vol. 19, p. 60. 



28 



Hebkaica 



No. 2 



sanguinis concreti, nigricans adspectu, idemque suspectu refulgens; 
unde et Homero purpureus dicitur sanguis, i. e., Tyrian purple is 
especially appreciated if it has the color of coagulated blood, blackish 
when seen from above, and glossy when seen from the side. Homer, 
therefore, calls the blood 'purple' (II. 15,360). See also n. 33. 

(23) This is evidently a gloss. Cf. D 86, 13; 252, below (her tresses 
are like ropes) ; 260, 1. 13 (thy black hair hangs down ; seven tresses 
capture us); M 16, n. 13. For King see n. 11 on No. 1. 

(24) This must have been a well-known building; cf. the ivory 
palaces in Ps. 45,9 and Ahab's ivory house 1 K 22,39; also Amos 3,15 
and Odyss. 4,73. See also n. 12 on No. 8. 

(25) Cf. n. 30 on No. 6. Heshbon was a Moabite town, the modern 
Hesban. On the east, at the base of the hill of the citadel, there was 
a great reservoir, which is now dry and ruined, and traces of other 
ancient pools and conduits have been found NW of Hesban. 

, (26) Bath-rabbim may have been the name of the eastern gate of 
Heshbon; it means 'Daughter of the Multitudes,' just as the eastern 
gate of Nineveh bore the name Nerib-masnaqti adnati* 'entrance 
of the crowd of nations;' cf. Delitzsch, HW 505 b , AW 162. Cheyne, 
Encyclopaedia Biblica, 502 proposes to read : Thine eyes are like 
Solomon's pools, by the wood of Beth-cerem ; but these emendations 
are unnecessary. The meter shows the clause at the gate of Bath- 
rabbim to be a gloss. 

(27) This does not refer to a watch-tower, but to a conspicuous point 
on the eastern side of Mount Lebanon, f which must have projected from 
the face of the mountain-range like a buttress-tower ; cf. the Bastei (i. e. 
bastion, bulwark) the name of a well-knowm rocky height in the Saxon 
Switzerland. Hebrew noses are more prominent than those of other 
races. In Arabic a promontory is called a nose of a mountain, just as 
we speak of the nose of a ship, &c. In anatomical terminology we have 
a promontory of the sacrum and a promontory of the tympanum. 
$8) Lit., palate. 

(29) This seems to be an illustrative quotation (cf. n. 6 on No. 1) 
from Prov. 23, 31 ; to my dearest must be a tertiary gloss (cf. n. 18). 

(30) RV M , causing the lips of those that are asleep to move (or 
speak). This may mean either, pursing the lips of those that are 
asleep, i. e., thy kisses are so sweet that if a man has tasted them, he 
will, even when asleep, purse his lips in expectation of another kiss (cf. 
the German sich auf etwas spitzen, which is derived from die Lippen 

♦Adnati = rVYJSn&S ; see Crit. Notes on Isaiah (SBOT), p. 133, 1. 22. See also vol. 1, pp. 
229. 231 of this Journal and KB 2, 229, 1. 109. 

fit can hardly be the ^^UwLi* , the raona Casius, NW of Damascus. Ibn 

Batuta, ed. Defremery et Sangninetti, 1,235 (Paris, 1853), says that the grace and beauty of 
this mountain is beyond description : 

See also Reinaud's G&ographie d'Aboulf&da and Baedeker's 
Palastincfi, p. 355. From the top of this mountain there is a most beautiful view. 
Lebanon includes, of course, the eastern range or Antilibanus ; cf. No. 5, n. 5, second 
paragraph. 



No. 2 



The Book of Canticles 



29 



spitzen) ; or it may mean, causing men to smack their lips in sleep, 
dreaming of your sweet kisses, just as a man may smack his lips (cf. the 
translation of the Vulgate, ad ruminandum* for rumination) in sleep, 
dreaming of some especially fine wine. In a Talmudic passage (cited 
by Delitzsch on p. 119 of his commentary) we read that the lips of 
scholars in the grave move (dobeboth; cf. fllFlBifl 1 S 1,13) 

when their names are cited. It may also mean, causing the lips of 
those that are asleep to speak (cf. Assyr. dababu 'to speak'), i. e., thy 
kisses are so sweet that a man will be enthusiastic about them, not only 
when he is awake, but will talk of them in sleep. 

(31) The color of the grains of wheat Ion el- hint e) 
is considered in Syria to be the most beautiful color for the human body; 
cf. Wetzstein on p. 177 of Delitzsch's commentary ; D 12, 1 ; and n. 39 
on No. 6. We distinguish red, white, and amber wheat. Father 
Oussani informs me that a woman with a beautiful complexion is often 
called in Bagdad : ib^Lk^ . 

(32) Lit., thy abdomen, especially thy hypogastric (or suprapubic) 
region (mons Veneris). 

(33) That is, the hair on the mons Veneris. Heaps of grains of 
wheat are still set about with lilies and anemones f in Palestine, to 
scare away birds. White lilies or scarlet lilies are not found in 
Palestine. Heb. shoshanna denotes a large and beautiful dark 
purple sword-lily (gladiolus atroviolaceus, Boiss.). Cf. n. 1 on No. 3, 
n. 30 on No. 6, and n. 18 on No. 9, also H, n. 34. 

(34) Lit., thy mystery, thy secret parts. 

(35) Not a round basin (the vulva is not round); Heb. sah a r must 
be explained in the same way as the word soh a r in beth has-soh a r 
'prison.' Cf. n. 35 on No. 8. 

(36) Lit., May the mixture (i. e., the seed of copulation, Lev. 15,18 ; 
cf. cf>i\6rr}Ti fjuyrjvai) not be wanting. 

Notes on No. 3. 

(1) To feed on the dark purple lilies (cf. n. 33 on No. 2 and n. 18 on 
No. 9) is synonymous with 'to uncover the nakedness' (nV# fVlbji » 
Lev. 18,6 ff.) and Homeric tfvrju Xvav (Od. 11,245; cf. D 140, 3; 235, 
below) and the Shakespearian 'to break the virgin-knot.' For this 
'feeding' cf. D 69, 11 ; 70, 15; 112, n. 3; 241, 9: ^L, pJL*Jb 

the vii. form of /^j*" f ee d' means 'to undress' (auLvi' i^y^ 
bL^t )^°})- The 'feeding' in D 70, 14 must be interpreted in the 
same way; the i^l^.:?* is the scrotum, and for the 'water-skin' (see also 
D 29, 1. 8) cf. n. 39 on No. 8, and TOSTi: Deut. 23,2. See also n. 4 on 
No. 11, and cf. M 19, vii and No. 7, n. 30. 

* Cf. Augustine on Psalm 46, 1 : ut, quando audit, sit similis manducanti; quum autem 
audita in memoriam revocat, sit similis ruminanti. 

tC/. Thoma, Ein Ritt irCs gelobte Land (Berlin, 1887), p. 40, quoted in Stickel, Das 
Hohelied (Berlin, 1888), p. 18. 



30 



Hebraioa 



No. 3 



(2) That is, the colchicum autumnale, a liliaceous plant with pale- 
lilac crocus-like flowers appearing in the autumn. Contrast n. 47 on 
No. 8. 

(3) The fertile plain S of Mt. Carmel (see n. 21 on No. 2) extending 
along the coast of the Mediterranean from Caesarea to Joppa. Or 
sharon may be a common noun meaning 'plain.'* 

(4) That is, I may be a little tanned, like the pale-lilac flowers 
of the meadow-saffron (see n. 2), or even like the dark purple sword- 
lilies (cf. n. 33 on No. 2), yet I am also just as beautiful as these flowers. 
Cf. Matt. 6,29: Consider the lilies of the field : even Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed like one of these. See also n. 12, and especially 
the passage of Theocritus quoted in No. 9, n. 18. 

(5) That is, the Syrian thistle (cnicus Syriacus or notobasis Syriaca), 
with milky-veined leaves, the heads (one to three) on short axillary 
branches, each head embraced by a rigid pinnatified spiny-pointed 
tyract. This thistle is from 1 to 4 feet high. 

(6) This verse may be an illustrative quotation (cf. n. 6 on No. 1), 
or scribal expansion, giving a feminine pendant to the following verse 
2,3 (see n. 2 on No. 7). Cf. also D 308, 5. 

(7) The Bedouin girls consider themselves black (or brown) and call 

the city girls white (^L^t^> hawariyat). The brown ones and 
the white ones ((jdA«Jl^ ^^Ji) play a prominent part in modern 
Palestinian erotic poetry; cf. D 25, 2; 74, 28; 86, 13; 200, n. 2; 236, 
below ; 240, below ; 250, c ; 396, a ; 309, 8. For the brown girls, cf. also 
D 21, 3; 237; 294 G_^*Jf oub and for the white ones, D 15, 

n. 1 ; 69, 12; 225, n. 2; 339, 1 and n. 3. 

(8) In several passages the addition of Jerusalem after ye maidens 
seems to be a subsequent insertion; as a rule, she says only Ye 
maidens (^Lyo L> ya benaiyat, D 6, 5), e.g. 8,4 (No. 3, t); 5,8 
(No. 6, y) 5 2,7 (No. 7, t ); 3,5 (No. 12, 8). Cf. also No. 1, 0 and t. At 
the end of No. 6 and in stanza vii of No. 8 Jerusalem may have been 
substituted for another name; the maiden addressed the cyLu 
IgJC-o Joo , D 308, 5. 

(9) The tent-cloth of the Bedouins is woven of goat's hair, and the 
goats are, as a rule, black. Cf. 4, 1 (No. 8) : Thy (black) hair is like a 
flock of (black) goats. Michal uses a net of (black) goat's hair to 
represent David's (black) hair (1 S 19,13). The Bedouins are called in 
Arabic Jjfcl ahl el-wabar 'the people of the goat's hair.' 

(10) A famous Bedouin tribe in Northern Arabia, SE of Edom. The 
Eedarenes are mentioned in the cuneiform account of the Arabian 
campaign of King Sardanapalus of Assyria (668-626 b. c). They must 
have tented at that time as far north as the Hauran, E of the Jordan, 
S of Damascus (cf. my translation of the cuneiform text in the fitudes 
&c. de'die'es a M. Leemans, Leyden, 1886, pp. 139-142, and my paper on 

* Cf. Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 22, p. 62. 



No. 3 



The Book of Canticles 



31 



Wateh ben-Hazael, sheikh of the Kedarenes, about 650 B.C., in vol. 1, 
pp. 217-231 of this Journal (cf. Lagarde, Mittheilungen, 2,69). See 
also Ezek. 27,21; Ps. 120,5. 

(11) Solomon was the impersonation of glory and splendor; cf. 
Matt. 6,29 quoted in n. 4, also n. 11 on No. 1. 

(12) She is a little swarthy like the black tents of the Bedouins, yet 
beautiful like the magnificent hangings in Solomon's palace, especially 
in her bridal finery. Cf. n. 4. 

(13) Cf. ^j! D 69, 12; 156, 2. The common expression 
axxai 'my brothers' would have been too short for the meter; the 
poet wanted two beats. For the same reason the unusual midbar^kh 
seems to have been used instead of pikha in 4,3 (No. 8). 

(14) The vineyards are exposed to the sun (cf. n. 3 on No. 4), so she 
could not protect her complexion. 

(15) That is, my maidenhood; cf. n. 1 on No. 4. The glossator 
who added this hemistich thought that to make her keeper of the vine- 
yards was like setting a fox to keep the geese. The metaphorical 
meaning of vineyard is explained in the misplaced illustrative quotation 
(cf. n. 18 and No. 1, n. 6) : Catch us the foxes, &c, which may be com- 
pared to the Schnadahilpfeln in the Bavarian, Tyrolese, and Styrian 
Alps. The foxes are the young men (cf. D 106, 2 : Look out for the wolf !). 
Foxes are very fond of grapes ; cf. the Aesopian fable of the Fox and 
the Sour Grapes. For the name 'destroyers of the vineyards' cf. the 
German term Waldverderber for animals and plants injurious to the 
woods. This little song consists of 4 hemistichs of two beats like the 
last stanza of No. 8 and the first and the last stanza of No. 10. 

(16) Supply, My brothers used to say when I was still an immature 
little girl. 

(17) Lit., when she is spoken for, i. e., when any one asks for her hand ; 
cf. 1 S 25,39. The bride was given away by her brothers; cf. Gen. 
24,50; 34,14; see also Jud. 21,22, and 2 S 13,22. 

(18) We will crown her with a silver bridal crown and give her a 
handsome bridal outfit when she marries with our consent. The double- 
line 1,11, which does not suit the context in 1,9.10* (No. 8), seems to 
be a misplaced illustrative quotation (cf. n. 15) explaining this state- 
ment. 

(19) The poet probably refers to the gold coins (or medals) with 
which the crown of the bride is ornamented. In the neighborhood of 
Damascus the bridal crown djw^jdt -J^ taj el-'arus) consists of a 

silver hoop covered with a network of strings of corals. On this net are 
fastened strings of gold coins, the largest coins being in the lowest row, 
and the smallest in the uppermost row. The lowest row of gold coins 
covers the forehead of the bride (cf. T> 228, below), the bridal crown 
being placed on the front part of the head. Cf. Delitzsch's commentary, 
p. 166, also D 121, 1. 3; 123, n. 3: (jAjLsJ ^JuiJ! 

* Note the future HTT^S in 1> H» while we have perfects in the two preceding verses. 



32 



Hebraioa 



No. 3 



Jfcyijj c^W^ ^SltXJi ; 124, 1. 1: ^tXxx> ^jjc y^b L (j^u^l lx>! 

. (7/. nn. 14. 17 on No. 8. 

The bridal crown is placed on the &A+a»S' kesmaye, a long strip 
of dark red silk, embroidered with gold and fringed on both ends. One 
end of the kesmaye hangs down in front, the other over the back. 
The kesmaye is often very costly. Cf. also D 277, 1. 16. 

(20) Between the fringes of the kesmaye (see n. 19) are small 
crescent -shaped* silver bells (^j+*a cumux); they are heard, as a 

rule, only during the sword-dance of the bride (cf. n. 1 on No. 2). The 
Heb. text means literally, Kows of gold will we make thee, with studs 
of silver. This must refer to silver grelots ; otherwise it would be unin- 
telligible why the rows of gold should be studded with silver. Silver 
bells are supposed to have an especially soft and musical sound. For 
chains of gold and silver cf. D 244 ; 6, 4. 

(21) We will shut her up and watch her with untiring watchfulness 
as lasting as cedar wood which does not rot (cf. Is. 40, 20 and my trans- 
lation of the opening chapter of Deutero-Isaiah in Drugulin's Marksteine 
(Leipzig, 1902). 

(22) I have not encouraged any lovers until now ; I have defended 
my fortress ; cf. D 226, n. 1. 

(23) I am no longer an undeveloped little girl but a marriageable 
young woman full of youthful vigor and strength. Cf. Ezek. 16,7 (see 
n. 18 on No. 2) and D 29, 1. 11. 

(24) Lit., I have become in their eyes (cod. Vatic, iv d<f>6a\[jLois avruyv) 
like one bringing out surrender (Arab. ^a-LaO t a slim). The brothers 
fear a surrender (cf. Josh. 11,19 ; Deut. 20,11 ; 2 S 10,19) of her maiden 
fortress as soon as she encourages a lover. 

(25) Supply, I often said to myself. 

(26) Cf. the lines in Wordsworth's Highland Girl (quoted in Max 
Miiller's Deutsche Liebe, p. 131) : ' Thy elder brother I would be, thy 
father — anything to thee !' See also D 29, n. 1. 

(27) Lit., who sucked the breasts of my mother, i. e., my own brother. 
Among the Bedouins only brothers and cousins (sons of the brothers of 
the father) have the right to kiss a girl; cf. ZDMG 22,93. 108. See 
Delitzsch's commentary, p. 163, below, and D 53, 1. 20 : Who asks for a 
kiss will be slain. 

(28) This is unintelligible unless we supply Jin»l^ TW$*/2\ G f- 
sipir sinnisti in the Babylonian Nimrod Epic (KB 6,126, 13. 20) and 
D 250, 1. 10. The LXX and the Peshita show that the second hemistich 
must be supplied from 3,4 e which is out of place in No. 12, 8. 

(29) That is, I would kiss and caress thee; cf. 1,4; 2,4; 4,10; 5,1. 

(30) Wine is still derived from pomegranates in Persia, and in 
Mexico an ardent spirit. The pomegranate (pomum granatum, lit., 
apple with many seeds) is the symbol of fecundation and procreation, 

* The Peshita has tfrpbt (= SOTinO lunulae) for n*Hp3 Cant. 1,11. 



No. 4 



The Book of Canticles 



33 



and its blossoms symbolize ardent love. In the Middle Ages the fruit 
of the pomegranate was the symbol of the holy virgin who bore the 
most precious fruit. Cf. nn. 11. 40 on No. 8. 

(31) Lit., until it please, i. e., until it be ended in ample satiety ; cf. 
Prov. 7, 18 : Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Verses 
3 and 4 are a scribal expansion derived from 2,6. 7 (No. 7). The second 
hemistich, By the gazelles and the hinds of the fields, is accidentally 
omitted in the present passage. Cf. n. 25 on No. 8. 

Notes on No. 4. 

(1) The virgin charms of the maidens are called their vineyards (cf. 
n. 15 on No. 3) just as the bride is styled a fair garden (cf. n. 50 on No. 
8 and n. 2 on No. 9). The vineyard at Baal-hammon (see n. 3) alludes 
to a large harem, such as Solomon had according to 1 K 11,3 where it 
is stated that he had 700 queens and 300 concubines. 

(2) The meter shows that this is a gloss. Contrast n. 11. 

(3) The Received Text reads Baal-hamon. This locality is unknown ; 
perhaps we should read Baal-hammon, designating an especially 
sunny and fruitful hill (cf. Is. 5,1) which was sacred to the sungod* 
Baal-hamman; cf. hamma 'sun' Job 30,28; Cant. 6,10; Is. 24, 23; 
30,26 and the note on Lev. 26,30 in the translation of Leviticus in The 
Polychrome Bible. The deity Baal-hammon is mentioned in more than 
2,000 Carthaginian votive inscriptions ; see Bathgen, Beitrage zur sent. 
Religionsgeschichte (Berlin, 1888) p. 28; Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Epi- 
graph. (Weimar, 1898), p. 153. Baal-hamon for Baal-hammon may be 
an intentional alteration. A town Ham m on is mentioned in Josh. 
19,28; another one of the same name is referred to in 1 Chr. 6,61, 
which may be identical with Hammath (Josh. 19,35), i. e., probably 
the name of the hot springs S of Tiberias (Josephus, Ant. xviii, 2,3, ed. 
Niese, 'A/x/xaflovs). 

(4) It was so large that the owner could not keep it in order without 
assistance. Similarly a large harem requires a number of eunuchs. 

(5) In Is. 7,23 a vineyard with a thousand vines is said to have been 
worth 1000 shekels. The vineyard of Baal-hammon must therefore have 
been unusually large and exceptionally valuable, if any man would have 
paid 1000 shekels for the product of one of its grape-harvests. A silver 
shekel was worth about 65 cents, but its purchasing power was, of 
course, much greater. 

(6) Lit., before me; cf. Prov. 4,3. I can take care of it without any 
assistance. Cf. ~D 244 : Take away all roses, one little garden (cf. n. 2 
on No. 9) is enough for me. 

(7) My bride; cf. n. 1. 

(8) The missing second hemistich has been conjecturally restored 
from Ps. 73,25 (cf. n. 21 on No. 1 ; n. 1 on No. 6, and n. 1 on No. 10). 
If a similar statement stood in the original text, we can easily under- 
stand why it may have been suppressed in this connection : an orthodox 

♦Contrast Cheyne-Black's Encyclopaedia Biblica, 402. 



34 



Hebraica 



No. 4 



Jew would have considered the application of this passage to a bride a 
blasphemy. Cf. D 281, 1. 12 : dLLoo ^ Lo ^LaJ? £ , There is no 
one in the world like thee. 

(9) This may mean either 1000 shekels or 1000 women. 

(10) The keepers of this large vineyard probably consume one fifth 
of the annual income, and it is not impossible that the inmates of a 
large harem may bestow one fifth of their favors on the keepers,* even if 
they are eunuchs many of whom retain the potentia coeundi (especially 
those whose testicles have merely been crushed), f I prefer to have my 
bride exclusively for myself and to allow no percentage whatever to an 
* assistant.' 

(11) In 8,11 this name must be omitted (cf. n. 2), but here it must be 
inserted. It was probably suppressed in the present passage owing to 
the discrepancy between the number of Solomon's queens and concu- 
bines here (60 + 80) and the number given in 1 K 11,3 (cf. n. 1). For 
the same reason the gloss 'and other young women without number' 
seems to have been added. 

(12) Cf. 5,2 (No. 6); 2,14 (No. 10). Also in modern Palestinian 
songs girls are called doves ; c/.D6,5; 72, 23. See also M 24. 

(13) Lit., my perfect one (Vulgate, immaculata mea) ; cf. 5,2 (No. 6) 
and n. 7 (last paragraph) on No. 2 ; also D 72, 22 ; 87, 16. 

(14) Lit., from her mother; cf. the phrase 'from her mother's womb' 
(Ps. 22,11 ; 58,4 ; Jer. 1,5 ; 20,17 ; Job 3,11 ; Is. 46,3). The traditional 
rendering, She is the only one of her mother, is out of place in this con- 
nection. The point to be emphasized is that she is the only one of the 
bridegroom. 

(15) Cf D 107, 1. 9 where a Bedouin maiden says, no wolf (cf. n. 15 
on No. 3) ever howled for me except my own Wolf (the name of her lover), 
and D 80, 1. 3 : I fancied that my gazelle (cf. n. 33 on No. 7) was for me 
alone, but, lo, thou hast three or four friends. 

(16) Accord the prize of beauty to her. 

Notes on No. 5. 

(1) With me thou art safe everywhere, on the brinks of the preci- 
pices, on the tops of the highest mountains, in the haunts of lions and 
leopards; I will guard thee and protect thee. Mendelssohn's well- 
known chorus Entflieh mit mir und sei mein Weib, which Budde 
suggests, affords no parallel, but cf. D 231, 1. 16 and D 344, 1. 4 of the 
poem. 

(2) Cf. b D 256, 1. 13. 

(3) Apeak of the range of Antilibanus,J; probably the J6bel-ez- 
Zebedani, below which is the source of the river Amana, Greek 

* In Egypt keepers of the harems were often married ; cf. M 5, n. 12. See also Dillmann 
on Gen. 39,1. 

t<?/. yDHt TXyyn .Lev. 21,20 and 0Xatta?, 0\aaCa?, 0Ai0i'o5, also mnDI y\yn Lev. 
22,24; contrast HDStj T\T\2 Deut. 23,2. 

$ Cf. Winckler, Alttestamentliche Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1892), p. 131, n. 1 



No. 5 



The Book of Canticles 



35 



Chrysorrhoas, i. e.,the present Nahr Bar ad a, which flows through 
Damascus. In the story of Naaman (2 K 5, 12) the name of this river is 
spelled with b (ZA 2,268, 2). In the cuneiform historical inscriptions 
the name of this mountain appears as Ammana(na). 

(4) According to Deut. 3,9 Shenir was the Amorite name of Mt. 
Hermon, but in 1 Chr. 5,23 Mt. Shenir seems to be* distinguished from 
Mt. Hermon,* just as in the present passage. Arabic geographers use 
this name Senir (cuneiform Saniru) for the part of the (Hermon, or 
rather) Antilibanus (^^&Jt J*a^) N of Damascus, between Baalbec 
and Home; cf. Reinaud, Geographic d' Aboulfe'da, II, 1, 89. Abul- 
feda says of the g-^t : — ^jj-&*t> ^jLsBuj ^! cXa+J y&j 

^yLww J^?* L^aJU-w £ ^Lo |<3l ^*-*o^ . The top of Shenir in our 

passage may refer especially to the Tal'at Mtisa, in the central 
mass of Antilibanus, which is 8755 feet high. 

(5) The present ^a^J! J6bel el-Shekh, i. c, the Mountain 
of the (white-haired) Old Man, or d**^ J 6b el eth-Thalj (the 

Mountain of Snow), the highest peak of Antilibanus. It has three 
craggy summits which rise out of a plateau. It is 9166 feet above the 
level of the sea and widely visible in Palestine, nearly as far south as 
Jericho. The snow hardly ever disappears from it. Cf. the full-page 
illustration facing p. 146 of the translation of the Psalms in The Poly- 
chrome Bible. 

Lebanon in our passage stands for Antilibanus. The poet mentions 
first the Amana near Damascus (NW) ; then the Shenir, a high peak of 
the Antilibanus between Baalbec and Home, N of Damascus; and 
finally, the highest peak of the Antilibanus, Mt. Hermon, SW of 
Damascus. Cf. also n. 27 on No. 2. 

(6) Cf. Jj«Jt 4>^J usud el-rab, D 227, 1. 2. Lions were numer- 
ous in Palestine in ancient times but have entirely disappeared since 
the 12 th century. 

(7) Leopards are still found occasionally in Lebanon. Along the 
Litani (the upper course of the Nahr el-Qasimiye, N of Tyre, 
which forms the northern boundary of Palestine) and in the Antilibanus 
they are not so rare. 

Notes on No. 6. 

(1) Two hemistichs seem to have been lost at the beginning of the 
first stanza. They are here conjecturally restored (cf. n. 8 on No. 4) 
from the beginning of No. 12 (3, 1) ; but, of course, the same idea may 
have been expressed differently, e. g., 'my dear one' was probably used 
instead of 'him whom I love' (lit., whom my soul loves). The preceding 



* It is, however, possible that Mt. Hermon in 1 Chr. 5,23 is simply an explanatory gloss 
to the preceding name Shenir. 



36 



Hebraioa 



No. 6 



first verse of c. 5 in the Received Text has no connection with the fol- 
lowing verses but belongs to the last two hemistichs of c. 4 (see No. 9). 

(2) That is, my mind was alert (cf. n. 26 on No. 8) ; he was never 
out of her mind (cf. ^° D 234, below ; 76, 36). 

She slept, but lightly, so that she awoke at once when her lover knocked 
at the door. The whole incident may be imaginative but it is not a 
dream. The story is a poetic device* to introduce the description of 
the beauty of the lover in vv. 10-16. When the maiden opens the 
door and finds her lover gone, she asks the maidens of her native town 
( L@XL>tXx> ^Lo , D 308, 5) to help her find her lover, whereupon they 
ask, What distinguishes him from other youths ? This gives the poet 
an opportunity to make the maiden describe the beauty of her lover. 
Songs describing the beauty of the lover are comparatively rare ; as a 
rule, only the charms of the maiden are praised (cf. Nos. 2 and 8). D 
242 (cf. ibid., p. xii, 1. 5) gives but a single poem celebrating the beauty 
of a young man. 

(3) Cf No. 10(2,8). 

(4) Supply, My dearest began to speak and said to me; cf. No. 

10, 

(5) Cf. above, p. 18, n. J and n. 27 on No. 8. 

(6) Cf. n. 12 on No. 4. (7) Cf. n. 13 on No. 4. 

(8) During the Palestinian rainless season (cf. n. 53 on No. 10) the 
sky is cloudless ; but, except in the desert, there is often a profuse pre- 
cipitation of dew, or rather mist, at night, which may saturate a fleece 
of wool so that Gideon was able to wring from it a whole bowlful of 
water (Jud. 6,38). A great deal of this so-called dew is moisture 
brought by westerly winds from the Mediterranean, and the vapor 
becomes condensed in the air before it is precipitated. It can therefore 
hardly be called dew ; it corresponds rather to the heavy and wetting 
Scotch mist which is common in the highland of western Scotland. On 
Mt. IJermon (cf. n. 5 on No. 5) this night-mist is so profuse that the 
tents of travelers are often completely drenched during a summer night, 
as though a heavy rain had fallen (EB 2023). 

(9) Supply, I replied to my lover. 

(10) It was customary to sleep entirely undressed, without a night- 
gown or under-garment, the upper garment being used as a covering 
(Exod. 22,26; Deut. 24,13; cf. also Gen. 9,23 and Job 22,6). The 
garments of the ancient Israelites were probably not very different 
from the clothing worn by the modern Fellahs and Bedouins, which 
consists of a tunic, or short shirt, confined at the waist by a belt, and an 
upper garment, a large oblong piece of woolen stuff wrapped around 
the body. This tunic is called in Arabic thob, Heb. kuttoneth, 
Greek chiton, Latin tunica. Chiton and tunic are derived from the 
Semitic name for under-garment, Heb. kuttoneth, tunic being a 



* Cf. my remarks in the translation of Ezekiel, in The Polychrome Bible, p. 177, 1. 37. 



No. 6 



The Book of Canticles 



37 



transposition of cut in (the final -eth in Heb. kuttoneth is merely 
the feminine ending). The modern Arabic name of the upper garment 
is &jL\£. 'abaye, Heb. simla or, with transposition, salma, Greek 
himation, Latin toga. 

(11) The ancient Hebrews wore sandals which protected only the 
soles of the feet so that it was necessary to wash the feet after a walk 
or before retiring at night (Gen. 18,4; 19,2; Luke 7,44). Water is 
more precious and scarce in the East than it is in our modern cities. 
The Bedouins look upon the use of water for washing as an unpardon- 
able luxury ; they rub their bodies with the fine sand of the desert. It 
is unnecessary to suppose that the maiden walked about barefoot 
(Budde); the shoes referred to in 7,2 were chopines; see n. 9 on No. 2. 

(12) The meter requires the insertion of the clause in the door. 

(13) The hole is not the aperture of the window (cf. n. 52 on No. 10) 
in the front- wall (Siegfried); nor is it a peep-hole in the front-door 
(Budde); but it is the key-hole of the front-door. Doors in Eastern 
villages are fastened with wooden locks, and wooden keys (D 19, 1. 7) 
are used, often of an enormous size, large enough for a stout club. The 
key of an ordinary street-door is commonly 13 or 14 inches long, and the 
key-holes are correspondingly large. Cf. the cuts on p. 160 of the trans- 
lation of Isaiah in The Polychrome Bible, representing an Oriental key 
and a merchant of Cairo carrying his keys on his shoulder (Is. 22,22). 

The lock was what is commonly known in England as the Egyptian 
lock ; cf. the cuts on p. 60 of the translation of Judges in The Poly- 
chrome Bible and Moore's commentary on Judges, p. 99. 

The lover could put his hand through the keyhole but could not 
open the door without the key. His sweetheart, however, could open 
the door from inside without a key. The door-bolt had special handles 
for this purpose corresponding to the door-knobs on the inside of our 
front doors. 

(14) Lit., my soul went out when he spoke. This does not mean, 
my soul failed when he spoke (so AV) or, Mir entwich die Seele, als er 
redete (Budde), which I presume is intended to mean, I fainted when he 
spoke ; nor can it mean, I was beside myself when he spoke (Siegfried, 
Ich war ganz ausser mir, als er sprach), but it means, I was inwardly 
moved toward him in love, just as we say, her heart went out towards 

him. Cf. also D 234, 1. 14: ^di lys* ^yo (5 JU* . 

(15) This hemistich, which appears in the Received Text after the 
second hemistich of v. 6, must be inserted before the last hemistich 
of v. 4. 

(16) Lit., my intestines made a noise within me (A V, my bowels were 
moved for him ; RV, my heart was moved for him). 

(17) Lit., upon the handles of the bar, i. e., by the handles. In the 
Received Text this hemistich stands at the end of the verse. 

(18) The lover had put his hand in the keyhole (cf. n. 13) and 
poured out a flask of precious myrrh (cf. n. 8 on No. 1) which dropped 



38 



Hebraioa 



No. 6 



from the keyhole to the handles of the bar on the inside of the door, so 
that the hands of the maiden were perfumed with myrrh when she 
touched the handles of the bar to open the door. This pouring out of 
myrrh was a token of love, showing that he had been at the door, just 
as a modern lover might throw a bunch of flowers through an open 
window, or through the transom of a door. Lucretius says in his didactic 
poem De rerum natura (4,1171) that the lover often stands, with tears in 
his eyes, at the closed door; he decks it with flowers and wreaths, 
anoints the proud door-posts with sweet marjoram oil (amator postes 
superbos ungit amaracino), and covers them with kisses. 

(19) Lit., oozing, spontaneously exuding, myrrh, i. e., myrrha stacte 
(from o-Ta£eiv ' to ooze, to trickle ') which exudes without incisions being 
made in the bark of the tree; cf. Pliny 12,35; 13,3 (sudant sponte 
priusquam incidantur stacte dicta cut nulla prefertur). See also Exod. 
30,23 and n. 8 on No. 1. 

(20) Not the veil, which is called gamma (RV, behind thy veil; 
AV, within thy locks) in 4,3 (No. 8) and 4,1 ; 6,7 (No. 8, (3 and v ), but 
a gauzy outer wrap (Is. 3,23; cf. also D 212, n. 2) which she left in the 
hands of the men, just as Joseph left his garment in the hands of his 
master's wife (Gen. 39,13), or as the young man who was following 
Jesus, at the time he was betrayed by Judas, left his linen tunic, and 
fled naked (Mark 14,51). The maiden was deprived only of her wrap; 
she kept her tunic and perhaps also her upper garment (cf. n. 10). 

(21) V. 7 a is a scribal expansion derived from 3,3 a (No. 12); the words 
printed in Italics represent tertiary glosses (cf. n. 18 on No. 2). In the 
present poem the maiden does not encounter any men, but appeals only 
to the maidens of her native town (cf. n. 2) asking them to help her to find 
her lover. The LXX inserts a repetition of the last hemistich of v. 6 
after 3,1, and the last hemistich of that verse is merely an erroneous 
repetition of the last hemistich of 3,2; cf. n. 1 on No. 12. 

(22) Supply, I said to the maidens (cf. n. 8 on No. 3) whom I met. 

(23) Supply, the maidens answered. For the following question, 

Whither is gone thy lover % cf. D 247, c : • 

(24) Lit., that I am sick with love; cf. D 70,16; 227, below, and n. 
10 on No. 7, also M 18, vi. 

(25) Lit., that we may seek him with thee. This stanza appears in 
ths Received Text as the first verse of the following chapter, after the 
last verse of the present poem, but it must evidently be inserted between 
vv. 8 and 9. 

(26) Lit., What thy lover from a lover, i. e., in what way is thy lover 
different from another lover ? 

(27) This does not mean, He looks like Milch und Blut (Budde), i. e., 
white, and rosy ; even the maiden was sunburnt and tanned (cf. nn. 4. 
12 on No. 3); it means that the skin of her lover was" white wherever it 
was covered by his garments, but bronzed (cf. nn. 28. 37. 41) wherever 
it was exposed to the sun. 



No. 6 



The Book of Canticles 



39 



(28) His face and his neck are bronzed by exposure to the sun. The 
gold alluded to is red, not yellow ; cf. Shakespeare's ■ golden blood ' 
(Macbeth ii, 3) and Horace's pudor flavus; also £av0i£a> Ho brown a 
roast.' D 86,12 speaks of 'golden lips and silvery teeth.' Cf. nn. 37. 41. 

(29) 'His eyes are like doves' does not mean only that he is dove-eyed, 
having eyes expressive of gentleness and affection, but also that his eyes 
are dove-colored, i. e., that the color of the iris is a warm gray or light 
bluish. Cf No. 7, a (1,15) and No. 8 (4,1). 

(30) His large liquid eyes are clear and transparent like the water of 
a reservoir (cf. n. 25 on No. 2) and shine like the luster of an expanse of 
water reflecting the light of the sun. In Arabic a lustrous pearl is called 

a wet pearl (v-J*N 1 u ' 1 u ' r a t i b) ; cf. our phrase ' a diamond of the 
first water.' Ovid, Ars am. 2, 722 says that if the lover touches his sweet- 
heart, he will see oculos tremulo fulgore micantes ut sol a liquida saepe 
refulget aqua. In a letter received by Mrs. Kate Soffel (who aided 
Edward and Jack Biddle to escape from the Pittsburgh Jail) the writer, 
who signs herself as Julia, and who is said to be rich and prominent in 
society, says of Edward Biddle that 'his soulful orbs swam in a flood of 
their own natural moisture' (Baltimore 'Sun,' March 4 '02). 

It is evident that this hemistich does not contain a reference to the 
eye-water, i. e., the vitreous humor (a glassy fluid filling the rear com- 
partment of the eyeball, behind the lens) and the aqueous humor (in 
front of the lens, filling the space between the lens and the cornea). 
Although the iris divides this anterior space into an anterior and a poste- 
rior chamber, it cannot be compared to a dove sitting by a pool that is 
brimful. Nor can this hemistich allude to the fact that the vitreous humor 
fills about four fifths of the eyeball. For the medical knowledge of the 
later Hebrew poets, cf. my paper on Ecclesiastes (quoted above, p. 17, 
n. J), p. 244, n. 60. 

In the Received Text this hemistich stands at the end of the stanza, 
but it seems to be the second hemistich, while the second hemistich of 
the Received Text is probably nothing but an explanatory gloss. The 
original last hemistich appears to have been lost; it may have been 
something like 'fringed with dark purple lilies' (cf. No. 2, n. 33),^. e., 
in this case, the eyelashes ; cf. n. 36. 

(31) The white of the eye, the opaque milk-white sclerotic of the 
eyeball. 

(32) Cf. n. 33 on No. 2 and n. 18 on No. 9. 

(33) Not his cheeks. Arab. sUi lihye (plur. liha n or luha n ) 
denotes the beard on the cheeks and on the chin. Contrast D 223, 5 : 

aU^> JLit , her cheek is a bunch of roses ; see also D 243, 1. 3. 

(34) As sweet -smelling ; cf. Dr. Hagen's book (cited in n. 7 on 
No. 1), p. 71. 

(35) Lit., raising, rearing all sorts of aromatics. 

(36) Not the lips but the mustaches, Arab. ^^Sy* sawarib (in 
Egypt, ^L-Uo senebat); Heb. D3 ; £ safam, Lev. 13,45; Mic. 3,7; 
Ezek. 24,17*. 22; 2 S 19,25; cf. D 305, 2; 319, 3; 333, last stanza. 



40 



Hebraioa 



No. 6 



(37) That is, bronzed ; cf. n. 28 and D 101, 1. 5 : her arms are sticks 
of pure silver (i. e., white ; cf. the end of n. 28), and her fingers pointed 
styles of gold (i. e., her hands are bronzed). 

(38) That is, his bronzed (n. 37) arms are covered with ornamental 
patterns tattooed in vermilion (the brilliant red pigment formerly made 
by grinding selected pieces of cinnabar*), while his white (n. 39) body is 
tattooed in ultramarine (the beautiful blue pigment formerly obtained 
from lapis lazuli; see n. 40). The usual explanation that the hemistich 
studded with tarshish f refers to the finger-nails is not satisfactory. 

The precious stone of Tarshish seems to have been finely crystal- 
lized cinnabar J found in the famous mines of Almaden (^Jut*Jt) N of 
Cordova ; cf. Pliny 33, 118. 121. 114 ; 37, 126. These crystals of cinnabar 
may be termed rubies just as we use the term ruby for several different 
gems ; e. g., the rich ruby -red garnets from South Africa are known as 
Cape rubies, and even the pale-red topaz from Brazil is sometimes called 
Brazilian ruby. 

Tarshish J is a Phenician word meaning 'mining.' It is an infinitive § 
of the intensive stem of 1E1£F\ , ' to strike with a pick,** to pound, crush, 
stamp' (ores, &c). The names Turdetania and Tartessus, &c, are 
modifications of the Semitic Tarshish, not vice versa. This name must 
be discussed in a special paper. 

Tattooing is still practiced by the modern Palestinians and Syrians, 
especially by the Bedouins; cf. D 6, 4 ; 25, 2 ; 36, 1. 4; 44, b ; 68, 9; 85, 
10; 135, b; 171, a; 217,2; 267, n. 1 ; 277, below. It must have been 
common among the Semites from the earliest times ; cf. the translation 
of Levit. 19,28 in The Polychrome Bible, You shall not make any inci- 
sions in your skin for the dead, nor shall you tattoo any marks upon you. 
Rashi (1040-1105 A. D.) remarks in his commentary on this passage, 
that it refers to indelible marks made by puncturing the skin with a 
needle and introducing some dark pigment into the punctures.*! The 
LXX translates, ypafxfxara (ttlktol ov ttol7j(T€T€ iv v/xlv. ^Ti£<o is the term 
which Herodotus and Xenophon use in describing the tattooing prac- 
ticed by the Thracians and the Movo-woikol (i. e., the inhabitants of 
wooden towers ; cf. Anab. 5, 4, 24) in Pontus near the coast of the Black 
Sea. Herodotus (5, 6) says of the Thracians that they think it a sign of 

* Cinnabar is often used for tattooing ; also henna (see n. 18 on No. 7) and indigo (or 
Indian blue). 

t Cf. Exod. 28, 20 ; 39, 13 ; Ezek. 1, 16 ; 10, 9 ; 28, 13 ; Dan. 10, 6. In Ezek. 10, 9 LXX has 
anthrax, that is, cinnabar (Vitr. 7, 8, 1), for tarshish. 

$ There is a fine specimen from Almaden in the mineralogical collection of Columbia 
University, New York. 

|| Cf. the copper mines of Tharsis, N of Huelva in southwestern Spain. 

§ Cf. Haupt, in vol. 1 of this Journal, p. 179 ; Beitrage zur assyr. Lautlehre (Gottin- 
gen, 1883) p. 93, n. 2 ; Praetorius in Delitzsch and Haupt's Beitrage zur Assyriologie, 1, 38, n. * 
(Leipzig, 1889). 

** Cf. German Hauer (hewer) = miner. 

urran i^pypM nbiyb praa irra yiptpi nprm nrp ypyp nnhoi *t 

T cbi?b -proE aim 



No. 6 



The Book of Canticles 



41 



noble birth to have all sorts of tattooed figures in the skin ; he who has 
none is not considered well-born (to fxkv iariyBai evyeves KCKpirai, to oe 
o.(ttlktov dyewes. Xenophon (Anab. 5, 4, 32) relates that the Mossynoeci 
exhibited to their Greek friends and allies children whose backs were 
painted in colors, and who were also covered with tattooed arabesques in 
front (e7reSeiKvr>crav avrols 7ratSas .... 7roi/aAov9 Se ra vwra k<xl to. €fX7rpoo~- 
Ocv iravra co-rty/xei/ov? avQtfxia). The mark which Jhvh appointed to Cain 
was according to W. Robertson Smith* a tattooed tribal mark (Gen. 4, 
16; cf. Is. 44,5;f 49,16; Ezek. 9,4; also Exod. 13,9.16; and, in NT, 
Revel. 13,17; 14,1.9; Gal. 6,17). I have discussed tattooing among 
the Semites in a special paper. J 

(39) Cf. n. 31 on No. 2. 

(40) This refers to tattooed marks (see n. 38) in blue (so AoF 1, 293); 
cf. D 40, 1. 11 ; 77, 1. 2 ; 112, 1. 14 ; 123, 11. 8. 9 ; 240, below ; see also D 7, 
nn. 3. 4. Sapphire does not denote the transparent blue variety of 
corundum but lapis lazuli, or azure stone, which the Assyrians called 
uknu.|| It has usually a rich ultramarine-blue color, with small 
golden specks of iron pyrites scattered through it,§ and the native or 
real ultramarine pigment was obtained from this mineral before the 
preparation of artificial ultramarine was discovered about 1830. The 
lapis lazuli of the ancients seems to have come from the famous Badakh- 
shan mines in northeastern Afghanistan, near Mazar-i-Ilakh, 1500 feet 
above the bed of the Kokcha, a tributary to the Oxus.** For the artificial 
lapis lazuli of the Babylonians see ZA 8, 189. 

(41) The sandaled feet are bronzed, while the legs, which are not so 
much exposed to the sun, are white ; cf. nn. 27. 28 and D 134, below 
(her legs are like round columns of choice marble) ; D 77, 38 (her feet are 
white silver ; cf. D 86, 12 : her teeth are like silver, quoted in n. 28 
and n. 8 on No. 8 ; and Lat. lilium argenteum, Prop. 4, 4, 25). 

(42) Towering as Lebanon. 

(43) As majestic as the noble cedars of Lebanon, some of which are 
100 feet high. Cf. the translation of Ezekiel, in The Polychrome Bible, 
p. 160. 

*See his Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (Cambridge, 1885), p. 215, and his 
Religion of the Semites* (1894), p. 334; cf. Stade, ZAT 14 (1894), pp. 250-318, reprinted in his 
Ausgewahlte akademische Reden und Abhandlungen (Giessen, 1899), pp. 229-273 (especially 
pp. 230. 260. 266-268. 272) ; see also Benzinger, Heb. Archceol., pp. 111. 426, below. 

tmmb m by nrov 

t Read at the meeting of the American Oriental Society at Hartford, April 15, 1898 ; cf. 
JAOS 19, 166. 

Ii Cf . Johns Hopkins University Circulars, July, 1894, p. Ill, and Journal of the American 
Oriental Society, 18, 145, n. 1. 

§ Cf. Job 28, 6 : lb 2HT nilS7 • Pliny 37, 119 says of the blnestone (cyanus) : Inest 
ei aliquando et aureus pulvis qualis sappiris; in Us enim aurum punctis conlucet. 

** See John Wood, A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus (London, 1872) , and Johns 
Hopkins University Circulars, July, 1894, p. 112. The Assyrians called this mountainous 
region Bikn, that is, the northeastern flank of the Hindu Kush (Paropamisus), not Mt. 
Demavend, S of the Caspian Sea (against Winckler). 



42 



Hebraioa 



No. 7 



(44) This seems to be a gloss which afterwards displaced the original 
addir 'majestic' {cf. Ezek. 17,23) in the text. Cf. n. 24 on No. 8. 

(45) Lit., palate. 

(46) Cf. the conclusion of the song D 112 (i*gV-ll oLo^l 

(47) Cf n. 8 on No. 3. ' 

Notes on No. 7. 

(1) For this poem cf. my remarks in my paper cited above, p. 17, 
n. \. I cite this paper in the following notes as H. 

(2) This is a scribal expansion derived from 4, 1 (No. 8) ; it is the 
feminine pendant to the first double-line of No. 7, just as 2,2 (No. 3, 7) 
is a feminine pendant to 2,3 (stanza II of the present poem); cf. n. 6 
on No. 3. 

(3) That is, our union will be full of life and vigor, it will afford us 
fresh pleasure for a long time to come; cf. n. 38 on No. 8 and H, n. 23. 

(4) Their humble cottage seems to them like a magnificent palace 
(H, n. 24). In D 37, 2 the maiden is said to sleep under velvet covers on 
ostrich feathers ; in D 271,-2 they sleep on silk and brocade. 

(5) The apple is an erotic symbol (H, nn. 19. 21) ; cf. nn. 9. 37 and 
n. 19 on No. 8, also Theocritus, 2, 120 ; 3, 110 ; 5, 88 ; 10, 34 ; 11, 10. It 
is not impossible that the term 'apple' (Heb. tappti a h) denotes the 
golden apples of the mandrake ; cf. No. 9, n. 10. 

(6) Cf. D 279, below. 

(7) Lit., the house of wine, i. e., the bridal chamber; cf. 1,4; 4,10; 
5,1 and D 238, 1. 7 (H, n. 25). 

(8) Lit., its banner over it was Love, i. e., a symbolical representation 
of Love was the tavern-sign. 

(9) He kissed and caressed me (H, n. 26) ; cf D 277, 1. 12 ; 106, 2 (If 
thou art hungry I promise thee thy supper, i. e., If thou longest for me 
I will regale thee with my love to-night) ; cf. also D 43, 4. 

(10) This is a scribal expansion derived from 5,8 (H, n. 27) ; cf. n. 24 
on No. 6. 

(11) Cf. D 32, 1. 15. (12) Cf n. 11 on No. 1. 

(13) Lit., in his accubation, on his dining couch, i. e., the bridal bed 
(H, n. 14); cf. nn. 7. 25. 

(14) This does not mean, I reciprocated his love in the most enthu- 
siastic manner, but, My dearest seemed to me the sweetest thing on 
earth ; cf. n. 21. For spikenard, cf H, n. 15 ; cf. also No. 8, p. 

(15) Cf. n. 8 on No. 1. 

(16) In the lament over a youth (D 318) he is addressed L> ya 
'atr 'O perfume ;' D 331, 2 a deceased dear one is called O my ambergris, 
O fragrant musk ! 

(17) Lit., that spends the night between my breasts, i. e„ He was as 
close to me as the sachet placed between the breasts (D 85, n. 3 ; 91, 1. 4) 
at night to perfume the bosom (D 260, 1. 15), and he was so sweet that I 
needed no other perfume (H, n. 30). Cf. M 16, iii. 

(18) The Flower of Paradise (H, n. 31). Cf. n. 6 on No. 9. 



No. 7 



The Book of Canticles 



43 



(19) Cf. H, n. 32. (20) Cf. 4,10 (No. 8, viii) ; H, n. 8. 

(21) That is, thy name is to me the sweetest thing on earth (cf. the 
Shakespearian 'Love's thrice-repured nectar'); see also nn. 14. 16. Lit., 
oil that has been decanted (H, n. 33). Cf. D 214, 6: 

iu>LoJ! 'xudju ^tfjjj, Thy name is a golden nose-ring in the case 

of the goldsmith (see the translation of Ezekiel, in The Polychrome 
Bible, p. 126, n. 10). 

(22) This seems to be an illustrative quotation (cf. n. 6 on No. 1) 
describing a symposium with hetaerae.* 

(23) Cf. n. 1 on No. 3. (24) Cf. H, n. 12. 

(25) Lit., Accumb (recline at the meal ; cf. n. 13), O my dearest, and 
be (i. e., leap, cf. H, n. 13, and below, n. 30 ; contrast n. 50 on No. 10) like 
a male gazelle or like a male fawn of the (fallow) deer. In the Hebrew 
text this imperative Feast ! (or Regale !)f forms the conclusion of the 
preceding stanza. 

(26) Cf D 261, 1. 13 (Play like a gazelle! ^ytJ\ ^jti ^jjJI); 

271, 2. For this 'playing' cf. pfi^ Gen. 26,8; 39,14. 17; also b^TH 
Jud. 19,25 and 7rai£e for o^eve in n. 12 of my paper cited on p. 17, n. J. 
Cf below, n. 33. 

(27) That is, a buck of the fallow-deer (German Damhirsch) in his 
second year, not a young hart or a roebuck. Cf. n. 34. 

(28) That is, the pudendum (in = mons Veneris, "ifQ = rima 
mulieris) ; cf. H, n. 36 ; n. 39 on No. 8, and n. 13 on No. 9. The trans- 
lation mountains of malabathron (cf. H, p. 53) seems to me improbable. 

(29) Mountains of myrrh and hillocks of incense, or mountains of 
spices (0), are all hyperbolical expressions for the sweet body of the 
bride ; cf. nn. 14-18, n. 7 on No. 1, and n. 17 on No. 9. 

(30) This has a double meaning, like IDT m Feci. 12,1; see my 
paper cited on p. 17, n. J, p. 261. It means not only 'to go off like a 
bolt, to spring away suddenly,' but it has also an erotic meaning (cf. our 
term 'male screw,' &c); it may be taken as a denominative verb derived 
from )T*Q 'door-bolt, bar;' cf Ex. 36,33 (AV, shoot through) ; or as a 
denominative from Aram. fc^TQ 'he-goat, buck' (cf. rpayt^w). See also 
n. 4 on No. 11 and M 19, vii cited at the end of n. 1 on No. 3. 

(31) The last two hemistichs of this stanza may be restored on the 
basis of the variant in 4,6 (cf. n. 20 on No. 8) ; or we may keep 'on the 
cloven mountains' (n. 28) in the text and add 'on the mountains of 
spices' (0) as fourth hemistich. 

* Cf. J. D. Michaelis' remarks on this passage (he seems to think of a lupanar) in his 
Neue orientalische und exegetische Bibliothek, part 4 (Gottingen, 1787), p. 91 (review of J. C. 
Velthusen, Das Hohelied, Braunschweig, 1786). On pp. 82. 83 of this review Michaelis says 
of the Song of Solomon, 'Ich denke, es ist eine alte Sammlung von Idyllen, die man, weil oft 
von Salomon die Rede ist, mit Recht oder Unrecht Salomon zuschrieb .... Ahnlichkeit 
und manches Gleiche finde ich freilich in den verschiedenen Gesangen von Liebe, aber mir 
zerf alien sie doch immer in mehrere nicht zusammenhangende Lieder von Liebe.' See also 
Michaelis' remarks on the metrical problems in part 3 of his Bibliothek (review of Velthusen's 
Catena cantilenarum in Salomonem, Helmstad, 1786), pp. 145-155. 

t Cf. Spanish regalar which means not only 'to regale' but also 'to caress,' &c. 



44 



Hebraica 



No. 8 



(32) Cf. n. 8 on No. 3. 

(33) The gazelle was the symbol of Astarte, just as the dove (cf. 
No. 4, n. 12) was sacred to the Goddess of Love; see W. Robertson 
Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp. 195. 298 ; cf. M 24, 
n. 11. Girls are often compared to gazelles ; cf. D 25, 7 ; 45, n. 2 ; 70, 
14; 80,1.3; 99, n.l; 131, n. 3; 170,3; 236, below; 259, below; 261,1.12; 
279 ; cf. also 321, last stanza, and n. 19 on No. 8. 

(34) More accurately, females of the fallow-deer (Cervus dama or 
Dama platyceros), 'pricket's sisters;' cf. n. 27; Prov. 5,19. 

(35) Lit., field, i. e., country, rural parts. Cf. D 91, n. 1 ( -Jl Jiyfi-)- 

(36) Cf. H, n. 20. f. J 4 

(37) Under the caresses of the bridegroom ; cf. n. 5 and H, n. 19. 

(38) This hemistich seems to be a variant or gloss explaining the 
following hemistich. Her mother conceived her ' under the apple,' i. e., 
under the caresses of her husband, but she will not be allowed to enjoy 
her connubial bliss. 

(39) This seems to be an illustrative quotation (cf. n. 22) from a 
poem in which a revengeful enemy threatens the bride that he will 
startle her 'under the apple,' while she is in the wedding-bed. Cf. H, 
p. 55. 

(40) Cf. n. 31 on No. 3. 

Notes on No. 8. 

(1) This description is more moderate (cf., however, n. 39) than No. 2. 
Budde, following Wetzstein, believes that the present poem was sung 
on the first day of the King's Week (cf. n. 11 on No. 1), i. e., on the day 
following the wedding, but it may correspond to the songs sung by the 
women while the bride is dressed in the house of her parents (cf. D 214, 
C ; 185, 2) or while she parades in her nuptial array (cf. n. 1 on No. 2). 

(2) Cf. n. 2 on No. 7. (3) Cf. n. 29 on No. 6. 

(4) This is an erroneous repetition from the end of v. 3. Cf. n. 1 on 
No. 12. 

(5) Cf. n. 9 on No. 3. 

(6) Lit., waving, or wavering, i. e., moving up and down or to and 
fro. The hair of the bride is not plaited during the wedding festival 
(n. 1 on No. 2), but hangs loose over the back and in front. Cf. D 260, 
1. 12 (Thy black hair hangs down). 

(7) That is, the region E of the Jordan, between the rivers Yarmuk 
(near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee) and Arnon,* divided into 
two halves by the river Jabbok,* where the tribes of Reuben and Gad 
settled. The name is, however, used also (Deut. 34,1 ; 1 Mace. 5,20 ff.) 
for the entire region E of the Jordan, between the river Arnon* and Mt. 
Hermon (n. 5 on No. 5). From the mountains of Western Palestine 
Gilead appears like a great mountain range, the top of which is, as a 
rule, uniformly level and does not rise into peaks. The beautiful hills 

* See the cuts on p. 78 of the translation of Judges in The Polychrome Bible and cf. ibid., 
p. 79, n. 11. 



No. 8 



The Book of Canticles 



45 



and dales of Gilead afford splendid pasture grounds for herds and flocks 
(Num. 32,1). Flocks of goats still feed there. 

(8) Lit., Thy teeth are like the flock of shorn ones (fern.) which have 
come up from the washing. The word ewes is omitted in the present 
passage, but we find it in the variant 6, 6 (gloss v) ; cf. n. 24. The 
meaning is, of course, thy hair is black, and thy teeth are white. ' White 
as wool' is a common comparison in Hebrew; cf. Is. 1,18; Ps. 147,16; 
Dan. 7,9. For sheep = white, and goat = black, cf. D 34, nn. 1. 2. In 
modern Palestinian poetry the teeth are said to be like pellets of hail 
(D 100, below; 112, 1. 10; 253, 1. 4), or like pearls (D 112, 1. 9; 261, 
below), or like silver (D 86, 12 ; cf. n. 41 on No. 6), or like the finest gold 
with corals between them (D 292, 1. 4). 

(9) Her teeth are so perfectly shaped that each upper tooth and the 
corresponding lower tooth look like twins. 

(10) There is no gap anywhere, not a single tooth is wanting. If a 
tooth was lost, it was not 'barren,' but was replaced by another one. 
The comparison is not carried through quite consistently, and the 
details must not be pressed. The chief object of the poet is to impress 
on his rustic hearers that it was a very fine flock of sheep. 

(11) According to Wetzstein the poet refers, not to a slice of pome- 
granate, but to a rift in a ripe pomegranate that bursts on the tree 
(L$x>! ^J^£. 'a la ummiha 'on her mother,' as the Arabs say) so that 
the seeds enclosed in the reddish pulp become visible. Cf. D 261, 1. 3 : 
Over thy cheeks are pomegranate blossoms, and n. 30 on No. 3, also 
the last hemistichs of ii and iv of No. 9, and M 38, n. 2. 

(12) This must have been a well-known bulwark ; cf. n. 14 and No. 
2, n. 24. 

(13) AV, for an armory ; RV M . with turrets ; Vulg., cum propugna- 
culis; the LXX efc ©aA7riw0 keeps the Hebrew word le-thalpiyoth. 
Gratz thought that Heb. talpiyoth represented the plural of a Greek 
Tr)\oj7TLa, 'far-reaching view,' connected with T-qXai-n-os, fern. TrjXums, 'far- 
seeing;' but this explanation is very improbable. If talpiyoth had 
been a Greek word the Septuagintal translators would probably have 
recognized it. Cf. n. 17 and No. 1, n. 17. 

(14) The well-known thousand shields ; cf. n. 12. In the description 
of the commerce of Tyre, Ezek. 27, 11, we read : The people of Arvad 
were on thy walls round about, and the people of Gammad were in thy 
towers ; they hung their shields upon thy walls round about ; and in 
1 Mace. 4, 57 it is stated that after the dedication of the altar and the 
offering of burnt-offerings (Dec. 165 B. C.) the front of the Temple was 
decked with crowns (or wreaths) of gold and with shields (ornamental 
circular plates) — kol KareKOo-fx-rja-av to Kara 7rpocrco7rov rov vaov o~Tecj)a.voL<s 
Xpva-oLs kcu do-7nSto-Kais. According to 1 K 10,16 Solomon had 200 large 
shields and 300 small ones, of beaten gold, for the decoration of the 
House of the Forest of Lebanon. They were carried away by Shoshenq 
of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam, i. e., about 928 b. c. (1 K 14,26) 
The shields of King David in the Temple are referred to in 2 K 11,10 
Cf. p. 175 of the translation of Ezekiel in The Polychrome Bible. 



46 



Hebraica 



No. 8 



The thousand targes probably allude to coins on the necklace of the 
bride (cf. n. 19 on No. 3). 

(15) Theocritus says in Helena's Bridal Song (18, 30) that Helena is 
like a Thessalian steed before a chariot ; Anacreon addresses a maiden 
as 7rwAe ©prjKirj 'Thracian filly;' and Horace (Od. iii, 11, 19) says of 
Lyde that she frisks on the fields like a three year old filly : 
Die modos, Lyde quibus obstinatas 
Adplicet auris, 

Quae velut latis equa trima campis 
Ludit exsultim metuitque tangi, 
Nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo 
Cruda marito. 

D 319, 4 a wife is called a KJLi keh ele 'a thoroughbred mare,' and 
in D 327, 4 a girl is addressed as 'a four year old filly' muhre). 

(16) The same term of endearment ( h tV3H > lit., my friend) is used as 
in 4, 1(1); cf 6,4(vii). 

(17) Probably gold coins (cf. nn. 19. 20 on No. 3). Heb. to rim may 
be a masculine plural of torah^i/o^tKr/xa 'coin.' The LXX has in 
1,11 (No. 3, e) 6/xotw/xara xpuo-iov for Heb. tore zahab and o/xotw/xara 
'likenesses' may refer to medallic portraits (ao^Jbt aiqone = eUuv, cf. 
Jfcyb D 121, 1. 3); cf. D 292, n. 3 (She put on gold medals, large gold 
coins, hanging over the temples). 

(18) Beads, or little shells, or pearls, or other gems (^|)j^)- The 
translation 'bandlets of corals' (Siegfried; cf. D^SS Lam. 4,7) is 
unwarranted ; see, however, D 15, 1. 16 ; 244, 1. 24. 

(19) As graceful and of as delicate form as a gazelle and as sym- 
metrical as twins (cf n. 9). The gazelle is celebrated in Arabian poetry 
for its beauty (cf. n. 33 on No. 7). In modern Palestinian poetry the 
breasts are compared to apples (D 253, 1. 10; cf. n. 5 on No. 7) or to 
pomegranates (D 101, 1. 3; 214, 6; 231, 1. 7: d*<Xo <jLc* ; cf. n. 40 
and No. 2, n. 17, also M 38, n. 3. 

(20) This is a misplaced variant (cf n. 23) to 2, 16. 17 (No. 7, viii. ix), 
or it must be explained like the gloss /3 in No. 2. Cf. n. 31 on No. 7. 

(21) The residence of the rulers of the Northern Kingdom from 
Jeroboam (930) to Omri (880) who founded the city of Samaria. The 
name probably means 'Pleasure' (LXX evBoKta). For the beauty of 
Jerusalem cf. Lam. 2,15; Ps. 48,3. See, however, n. 8 on No. 3. The 
name Samaria would probably have suggested to the Jews of the Greek 
period the idea of schism and apostasy ; it would have been ill-omened ; 
cf. Karl J. Grimm, Euphemistic Liturgical Appendixes in the Old 
Testament (Baltimore, 1901), p. 4 (Johns Hopkins dissertation). 

(22) This is a scribal expansion derived from the first stanza of No. 2 
(cf n. 3 on No. 2). 

(23) Verses 5 b -7 are a scribal expansion derived from 4, l b . 2. 3 b in 
the first three stanzas of this poem. We find some variants just as in 
8 (cf. n. 20). 

A 



No. 8 



The Book of Canticles 



47 



(24) In 4, 2 (stanza ii) we have 'shorn ones' (fern.) instead of 'ewes.' 
Ewes is simply an explanatory gloss which has superseded the original 
' shorn ones.' Cf. n. 44 on No. 6. 

(25) The first two hemistichs of the third stanza are here acciden- 
tally omitted ; cf. n. 31 on No. 3. 

(26) Lit., thou hast disheartened me, but this does not mean in 
Hebrew, thou hast discouraged me, or, thou hast stolen my heart, but 
thou hast deprived me of my reason, deranged my intellect, thou hast 
crazed my wits; cf n. 2 on No. 6 and D 124, 1. 3; 217, 2; 224, 1. 7 ; 234, 
n. 2; 240, 7 ; 241, 10; 245, 1. 19; 257, 1. 10. 

It is not impossible that 6, 5 is merely a variant to 4, 9, and 6, 4 a 
variant to 4, 7 ; cf n. 14 on No. 9. 

(27) The glossator was probably afraid that the term 'my sister' (cf 
above, p. 18, n. J) might be understood literally (cf. Lev. 18,9). If 
bride were not an explanatory gloss, we should expect my bride. In 
modern Palestinian poetry the beloved maiden is often addressed as 
' my brother,' i. e., my sister (e. g., D 28, 1. 8 ; cf. D xiii). 

(28) Cf. 1, 4 (No. 7, vii). 

(29) Cf D 32, 2 (honeyed lips); 134, 1. 9 (honeycombs in the 
mouth) ; 253, 1. 5 (her lips are nectar) ; 223, 5 (^Lio^ , i. e., luscious, 
fresh, ripe dates drop from thy lips). 

(30) The Heb. deb as 'honey' denotes also, like the corresponding 
Arabic dibs (D 29, n. 4), a syrup made of grapes or dates. The word 
is different from the term for 'virgin honey' (Heb. nof eth). Deb as 
is the word used in the phrase 'flowing with milk and honey' (fQT 
TinTl nbn) Exod. 3, 8, &c), milk representing cattle-raising, and 
debash (=dibs) agriculture. The addition of debas in our line 
was probably suggested by that proverbial phrase. Cf. EB 2104. 

(31) D 125, 1. 7 we read, her spittle is sweeter than sugar ; D 349, 
1. 1 a poetic message is said to be like sugar mixed with honey, better 
than the most precious ambergris ; D 309, 8 the beloved is addressed as 
candied fruit and a box of sugar. 

(32) Lit., the fragrance of thy oils is above all spices (cf. No. 7, 5). 
In the Received Text this hemistich stands at the end of the preceding 
stanza. The prefixed 'the fragrance of is due to scribal expansion ; so, 
too, in the following hemistich (gloss v). 

(33) This refers to the cedars and aromatic herbs of Mt. Lebanon ; 
cf. Hos. 14,7 (6); also Gen. 27,27. 

(34) Cf. n. 15 on No. 3, n. 1 on No. 4, and nn. 2. 12 on No. 9. 

(35) This gloss shows that v. 15 followed originally v. 12. For the 
'closely sealed fountain,' cf. n. 35 on No. 2. 

(36) We find the same metaphor for bride and young wife in Prov. 
5,15-17, where the allegorical language is explained in the following 
vv. 18-20 (cf. the Critical Notes on Proverbs, in SBOT, p. 38, 1. 18). The 
meaning of the exhortation in Proverbs is, Avoid illicit intercourse and 
observe conjugal fidelity! Cf. also Eccl. 12,1: Remember thy well 
(i. e., thy wife) in the days of thy youth, &c, and my remarks in the 



48 



Hebraica 



No. 8 



paper cited above, p. 17, n. J, pp. 261 and 276, n. 63 (cf. n. 30 on No. 
7). In a Talmudic passage we read, One does not drink out of a cup 
before examining it, i. e., one does not marry a woman before one is sure 
that she is without blemish ; another passage says, Do not cook in a 
vessel in which thy neighbor has cooked (see Levy s. v. p*Q and »"I"Hp 
= Assyr. diqaru).* In NT 'vessel' is used for 'wife' in 1 Thess. 4,4 
and 1 Pet. 3,7. Aquila translated TOtD Eccl. 2,8 (RV, concu- 

bines very many) by kvXlklov k<u xvAuaa (Vulg. scyphos et urceos in 
ministerio ad vina fundenda). In modern Palestinian poetry a maiden 
is often called a well or a fountain ; cf. D 8, n. 1 ; 43, n. 2 (my fountain 
is like streams of water) ; 49, n. 1 ; 213, n. 3 ; 225, 8 ; cf. also D 45 1. 9 ; 
75, 32; 294, n. 2. Water-wheels (norias, s^^lj) and buckets often 
symbolize the enjoyment of love ; cf. D 85, n. 4 ; 106, 2 ; 107, 1. 7 ( Lo 
y}o ^?). The beloved is said to have a water-wheel in her palate, 
because her kisses are so refreshing (D 290, n. 4). The bride is the 
'fountain of pleasure, the source of delight, the wellspring of happiness, 
the cistern of bliss, the stream of enjoyment. 

(37) That is, running, not stagnant; cf. Gen. 26,19 (AV, a well of 
springing water) and notes on the translation of Leviticus in The Poly- 
chrome Bible, p. 77, 1. 32. 

(38) The forest of Lebanon (see full-page illustration facing p. 72 
of the translation of the Psalms in The Polychrome Bible) will protect 
the source of supply so that the waters will never dry up ; they will be 
perennial, unceasing, never-failing. Cf. n. 3 on No. 7. 

(39) Lit., thy conduit. The same word is used in Neh. 3,15 for the 
Pool of Siloam (Vulg., piscina Siloe). This name denoted originally not 
the pool but the conduit conducting the water of the Virgin's Spring 
(just outside Jerusalem) to that reservoir cut in the rock. In the Siloam 
Inscription this tunnel is called PDpD 'perforation,'! and fD^D per- 
forata is the Hebrew word for 'female;' cf. n. 35 on No. 2, n. 1 on 
No. 3, n. 28 on No. 7, n. 13 on No. 9, also the passages in D cited in n. 36. 

(40) Cf. n. 30 on No. 3. D 28 the beloved is called a pomegranate- 
tree, on whose seeds the traveler feasts at night as well as in the morn- 
ing, i. e. f he feeds upon her dark purple lilies (cf. n. 1 on No. 3) before 
he retires and before he rises ; cf. n. 8 on No. 9, also M 38 ; 20, 1. 13. 

(41) Cf. n. 18 on No. 7. (42) Cf. n. 14 on No. 7. 

(43) See my remarks on malabathron cited in n. 28 on No. 7. The 
Received Text has spikenard, saffron, sweetflag, and cinnamon, but 
' saffron ' should be inserted between myrrh and aloes in the third hemi- 
stich. Spikenard and cinnamon have been transposed in the English 
translation to improve the rhythm ; but this transposition is not neces- 
sary in the Heb. text. 

(44) The Acorus calamus whose thick creeping rootstock (the offici- 
nal calamus aromaticus) is pungent and aromatic, and is still used in 
confectionery, distilling, and brewing. 

* See n. 101 of my paper cited on p. 27, n. *. 

tCf. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 22, 57. 



No. 9 



The Book of Canticles 



49 



(45) Cf. n. 8. on No. 1. In D 112, 1. 17 the *y» surre, i. e., the 

navel or center (a euphemism for pudendum ; cf. n. 34 on No. 2) is said to 
be like a box of civet (cf. n. 7 on No. 1) exhaling musk and camphor. Cf. 
Dr. Hagen, op. cit., p. 50. D 309, No. 7 it is said of a young woman 
that seven kings water her sweet basil plant ((Jj.^ habaq). 

(46) See n. 8 on No. 1. 

(47) The autumnal crocus (crocus sativus) which has a sweetish 
aromatic odor. It was highly esteemed by the ancients and by the Ara- 
bians. Contrast n. 2 on No. 3. 

(48) The dark aromatic resin of the agallochum (Aquilaria Agal- 
locha) or lign-aloes, which is much used by the Orientals, especially in 
the preparation of incense. 

(49) This double-line seems to be a variant to the first half of v. 14 ; 
cf. n. 14 on No. 1. 

(50) That is, Let me enjoy the charms of my bride, may she recipro- 
cate my love in the most enthusiastic manner (cf. n. 14 on No. 7) ! The 
various spices merely symbolize the incomparable sweetness of the bride 
(cf. n. 29 on No. 7). The last stanza of this poem has but two beats, 
not three, in each hemistich ; cf. n. 15 on No. 3 and n. 1 on No. 10. 

Notes on No. 9. 

(1) No. 9 seems to be the immediate sequel of No. 8, as in the 
Received Text (cf. D 15, n. 4); 7,12-14 and 6, 11 and 6,2 were probably 
displaced in order to make the erotic allusions less obvious ; see above, 
p. 19, and cf. below, n. 14. 

(2) The fair garden with dark purple lilies (n. 18), henna-flowers (n. 6), 
pomegranates (n. 9), &c, symbolizes the charms of the bride; cf. nn. 
7. 12 and the ancient Egyptian 'garden songs;' see A. Erman, Life in 
Ancient Egypt (London, 1894), pp. 194. 389* and M 26-28, especially 
No. xix, also 18, v. The wife was called the 'field' of her husband 
(M 6, n. 12) ; cf. Sophocles' Antigone 565 : dpwo-i^oi yap yaripoiv daiv yvai, 
also apovpa 'field' = womb, &c. In D 261, below, at the beginning of a 
nuptial song accompanying the giving away of the bride, we read, 
When thou goest to the flower-garden ; and in the second line of a poem 
sung during the torch-dance of the bride (cf. No. 2, n. 1) the bride is 
addressed : O thou flower in the garden-land (D 259, below) ; cf. also D 
248, 1. 9 (My dearest entered the vineyards). 

(3) Let us enjoy our connubial bliss ; cf. No. 8, xi, 1. 2. 

(4) This 'outing' must not be understood literally; it is a pleasure- 
trip in the garden of the bride (n. 1) just as the 'leaping of the gazelle 
and the pricket on the mountains of myrrh and the hillocks of incense' 
(No. 7, n. 25). 

(5) Cf. n. 35 on No. 7 and the end of n. 2 above. 

(6) Cf. No. 7, n. 18 ; No. 8, n. 41. AV, Let us lodge in the villages ; 
so, too, Budde, following Delitzsch ; contrast Ewald and Siegfried ad loc. 

* In the first German edition of the work (Tubingen, 1885) , pp. 272. 520. 



50 



Hebraica 



No. 9 



(7) Cf. n. 2 and No. 3, n. 15. 

(8) In the morning fresh pleasure will be in store for us ; after the 
refreshing sleep they will be ready for new erotic achievements ; cf. No. 
7, n. 3, and especially the song D 28 quoted in No. 8, n. 40. 

(9) Cf. No. 8, n. 40. See also D 15, 1. 7 ; 22, 1. 9 ; 237, below ; 238, 1. 2. 

(10) The mandrake is regarded as an aphrodisiac in the East ; cf. 
Gen. 30,14. The Heb. name duda'im (for dudaylm; ZA 2, 275, 
n. 1) is connected with the Heb. word for 'love,' dod. According to M 
17, nn. 3. 10, however, duda'im is an Egyptian loanword. For the 
sweetish aroma of the golden apples of the mandrake see Wetzstein in 
Delitzsch's commentary, p. 440. The reddish-orange apples (or rather 
berries) of the mandrake are about 1J in. in diameter and resemble small 
tomatoes (German Liebesapfel). 

(11) Lit., new as well as old, of this year as well as of former years, 
i. e.j the sweet remembrance of former kisses and caresses. 

(12) Bearing sweet-seeded nuts with fragrant foliage. This garden 
of nut-trees denotes again the charms of the bride (n. 2). The walnut- 
tree is particularly common around the village fountains in the East ; 
cf. nn. 36. 39 on No. 8 and M 27, n. 10. 

(13) The Heb. word denotes especially a wadi, i. e., a valley bisected 
by the bed of a mountain-torrent (cf. No. 7, n. 28). 

(14) It is not impossible that stanzas v and vi are merely variants of 
stanza iv. Or the last stanza, in which the bride speaks again, may be 
the sequel of the first three stanzas, and 6,11 and 5,1 variants to 6,2. 
Cf. the second paragraph of n. 26 on No. 8. 

(15) 4 My sister ' in this context cannot be vocative ; these lines are 
not addressed to the bride. 

(16) Cf. n. 27 on No. 8. 

(17) I enjoyed the charms of my bride ; she was as fragrant as myrrh 
and other costly spices, as sweet as honey, as intoxicating as wine, as 
pure and refreshing as milk.* For the 'beds of spices' cf. D 247, 1. 12 
(SHe blossomed like a meadow, grew like musk and nutmeg). 

(18) Cf. n. 1 on No. 3. The Greeks called this dark purple sword- 
lily vaKivOos. Apollo caused this 'hyacinth' to spring from the blood 
of Hyacinthus. Ovid (Met. 10, 210) says that the hyacinth looks like a 
lily, but is not white but purple : — 

Tyrioque nitentior ostro 
flos oritur formamque capit quam lilia, si non 
purpureus color his, argenteus esset in Mis. 

*We must remember, however, that the LXX read 1,2. 4; 4,10; 7,13 d add dim 
'breasts' (Assyr. dida, KB 6,126,16) instead of do dim 'love.' The Vulgate renders 1,2: 
meliora sunt ubera tua vino; 4,10: quam pulchrce sunt mammae, tuaz, soror mea, sponsa! 
pulchriora sunt ubera tua vino ; 7, 13 : ibi dabo tibi ubera mea. We find ' breasts ' in similar 
contexts of ancient Egyptian love-ditties ; cf. M 15. n. 7 ; 22, n. 12 ; see also Prov. 5, 19 and D 
70, 15; 106, 2, 1.4; 212, 2; 240, n. 2. The Peshita renders 'love' in 1,2 ( ; jJaOio) and 1,4 
but in 4, 10 (^ *«»Y) and 7,13 (^VZ) it has ' breasts.' Cf. Geiger, Urschrift und 
tfbersetzungen der Bibel (Breslau, 1857), pp. 396-404. 



No. 9 



The Book of Canticles 



51 



Theocritus (10, 26-29) says to the graceful but sunburnt Syrian maiden 
Bombyce, The violets and the lettered* hyacinths are dark, but both 
flowers are considered the most beautiful in any wreath, f 

BofA(3vKa x a P'- e(Ta ' a ', ~2>vpav kolKeovtI tv iravres, 
foxvav, a\i6i<av<TTOv, iyih 8£ jxbvos /xeKix^oopov, 

/ecu ti> lov /x4\av earl /ecu a ypawrd v&Kivdos, 
dXX' e/jLiras iv tois (rrecpdvois ra irpdra \4yovrai. 

This is the most striking parallel to Cant, in the idyls of Theocritus (cf. 
d. 4 on No. 3), and if it is not an accidental coincidence, we must believe 
that Theocritus had heard in Alexandria a Greek version of some of the 
Damascene love-ditties in Cant. J Od. 6, 231 (23, 158) it is stated that 
Athena made Ulysses' bushy locks flow down from his head like hya- 
cinths: — , 

Kao oe KaprjTOS 
ot\as 77/ce k6[a<x$ vanivdivip dvdei 6/j.oias. 

Hyacinthine locks means, therefore, dark (purple) hair. The bulbous 
plant which we call hyacinth was brought from Bagdad to Aleppo 
during the second half of the 16 th cent, and was cultivated in England 
about the end of the 16 th cent. The Latin equivalent of vaKivOos is 
vaccinium, which seems to be a corruption of hyacinthus (*vaccinthus\\). 
Vergil (Eel. 10, 39) renders Theocr. 10, 28 : et nigrae violae sunt, et 
vaccinia nigra. 

The precious stone hyacinth § of the ancients (Vulg., plenae hya- 
cinthis = studded with tarshish ; cf. n. 38 on No. 6) was our amethyst 
(i. e., a purple variety of quartz), while dfiidvaros and amethystus denote 
the Oriental amethyst or amethystine sapphire, also called purple ruby 
(i. e., the rare purple variety of corundum) which is extraordinarily bril- 
liant and beautiful (cf. Pliny 37, 125). 

For the picking of the hyacinths or lilies cf. D 69, 1. 9; 134, 1. 8. 

Notes on No. 10. 

(1) This poem consists of three stanzas; the first and the second 
are composed of five double-lines,** while the third has, in the Received 
Text, but three double-lines. It is probable, however, that the third 

* The ancients believed that the exclamation AI ' woe !' was marked on the petals of the 
hyacinth. 

t Cf. A. Lang's Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus rendered into English prose, London, 1880. 
X Cf. Delitzsch's commentary, p. 13, n. 3. 

I! Greek uaKivflo? passed into Aramaic as XriDIp"' (for XHSIpl ; c/. Heb. yain for wain 
'wine' and Crit. Notes on Ezra-Neh. in SBOT, p. 63, 1. 2) or (with partial assimilation of the 
t to the n) fcSlwI'D' 1 ; cf. Haupt, Sumer. Familiengesetze (Leipzig, 1879), p. 43, n. 2 ; Crit. Notes 
on Ezra-Neh. (SBOT), p. 63, 1. 29. In Arabic it appears (with assimilation of the n to the t 

and resolution of the doubling and compensatory lengthening) as i^yjj'L) yaqut; cf. the 

name of the well-known Arab geographer (1179-1229 A. d.), who was of Greek extraction. 

§ In modern usage hyacinth denotes a reddish-orange variety of zircon, but the name is 
applied also to some varieties of garnet and topaz. 

** For Egyptian double-lines see M 12, 1. 13. Cf. also EB 3911, n. 2. 



52 



Hebraica 



No. 10 



stanza had the same refrain as the first two stanzas, and a fifth double- 
line may be conjecturally restored {cf. No. 4, n. 8 ; No. 12, n. 7) on the 
basis of No. 6, ii. In the same way the meter requires at the end of 
v. 12 the addition of two words which have been restored on the basis of 
Jer. 8,7.* 

In the first and in the third stanza each hemistich has two beats ; 
in the second stanza, on the other hand, we find the usual three beats in 
each half-line, except in the refrain w T hich has but two beats in each 
hemistich just as in the first and third stanzas. Cf. 2, 15 (No. 3, 5) and 
the final stanza of No. 8. For shorter lines at the end of Egyptian love- 
ditties see M 11, 1. 13. 

(50) The reference-figures 49-64 refer to the notes on my paper cited 
in n. 1 on No. 7. 

Notes on No. 11. 

(1) No. 3 contained an epigrammatic song (stanzas iv-vi) twitting 
the brothers of the bride for their unnecessary and premature solicitude 
concerning her chastity and her marriage. Here we have a little raillery 
at the expense of the newly married couple relating the teasing answer 
which the bridegroom is said to have given to his sweetheart when she 
asked for a tryst. 

(2) For 'pasturing' and * feeding' cf. n. 1 on No. 3. 

(3) Lit., where w T ilt thou cause thy flock to lie down. Cf. D 233, 
1. 19 ; 234, 1. 4 (Show me where thy house is). 

(4) This phrase is equivocal. The original meaning is wandering 
about in quest of the tryst, but it suggests also the idea of wandering 
from the path of duty. The Orientals are very fond of ambiguities 

talhin), especially the Jews of Damascus; a common saying 
at Damascus was ^dy^i ^y* alhanu min Yahudi 'more 

fond of veiled allusions than a Jew ; ' cf. Wetzstein's remarks on p. 454 
Delitzsch's commentary, also D xi, and n. 30 on No. 7. 

$5) Cf. No. 6, viii. ix. In the present passage this phrase seems to be 
a scribal expansion ; the answer given by the bridegroom is not polite or 
complimentary. 

(6) This may be an expression like our ' Follow your nose ! ' 

(7) A kid was the customary present given to a harlot or to a female 
'friend' (alibjco cadiqe) who was visited by a man from time to time. 
When Judah saw his daughter-in-law, Tamar (whom he mistook for a 
harlot, because she had covered her facef and wrapped herself as the 
harlots used to do (Prov. 7,10)), he said to her, I will send thee a kid 
(Gen. 38,17). When Samson visited his Philistine 'friend' at Timnath 
he brought her a kid (Jud. 15,1). X Such a gift was probably expected 

* Cf. also the third double-line of Samuel Hanagld's (993-1055 A. d.) erotic poem pub- 
lished in Lagarde's Mittheilungen, vol. 3 (Gdttingen, 1889), p. 32 (see H, n. 34, third 
paragraph). Contrast M 8, n. 6. 

fThe Received Text reads therefore in our passage, 'As one that is veiled, 1 so RV 
and AVM. 

t Cf. Jud. 14, 1 and the notes on Judges in The Polychrome Bible, p. 83, 1. 40. 



No. 11 



The Book of Canticles 



53 



at every visit of the 'husband.' The 'bride' remained at her father's 
house, and the 'husband' visited her there. The old Arabic term for 
the present a man makes to his female friend is ^jjfjua cadaq. 
According to Ammianus Marcellinus (14, 4) marriage among the Sara- 
cens was a temporary contract for which the wife> received a price. The 
husband took the wife on hire for some time. These temporary alliances, 
which were common in Arabia at the time of Mohammed, are called in 
Arabic, Raa+JI nikah el-m6t'a. In Persia they are still 

recognized as legal ; see W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage 
in Early Arabia (Cambridge, 1885), pp. 65, 67, 76. In the Book of 
Tobit we read (Tob. 2, 13) that after Tobit had been stricken with 
blindness, his wife, Anna, went to a factory where women were employed 
as weavers* (cf. M 6, n. 4), and when the owners gave her a kid one day, 
in addition to her wages, she fell out with her husband who would not 
believe her story and insisted on the kid being returned to the owners 
of the factory, as he felt ashamed of his wife. A young he-goat was the 
offering of the Greek hetserse to the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite (cf. our 
'goatish' = salacious, lecherous, and n. 30 on No. 7). 

(8) That is, if you do not love me enough to be instinctively guided 
to the place where I shall rest at noon, you may bestow your erotic 
favors on the other shepherds, and receive, as the price of consent, a 
number of kids which you may feed at the tents of the shepherds. 
She will have so many kids that she will be able to start a flock of 
her own. Similarly a poor actor might be told that he would receive 
so many apples and eggs that he would be able to open a grocery 
store after the performance. 

Notes on No 12. 

(1) This is an erroneous repetition of the last hemistich of the fol- 
lowing verse (gloss £). Cf. n. 4 on No. 8. 

(2) Supply, I said to myself. 

(3) This is a scribal expansion derived from No. 6, vi, 1. 3 ; on the 
other hand the first line of the second stanza of the present poem has 
been inserted, with some tertiary additions, in No. 6 (gloss |S) ; see n. 21 
on No. 6. 

(4) This is an incorrect explanatory gloss : the men going about the 
city were not all watchmen. Cf. No. 9, n. 4. 

(5) These two hemistichs belong to No. 3, viii ; cf. n. 28 on No. 3. 
The following stanza (v. 5) is a scribal expansion derived from the last 
stanza of No. 7 ; cf. n. 31 on No. 3. 

(6) Cf. n. 8 on No. 3. 

(7) This is a conjectural restoration of the missing hemistich ; cf. n. 8 
on No. 4. 

* The Greek text has YipiBevero ev rots ywai.iceioi<s, the Vulgate translates, ibat ad opus 
textrinum. Hugo Grotius, ad loc, explains: lanificium faciebat in domo aliqua divitum 
quaestum inde facientium. 



54 



Hebraica 



No. 12 



(8) Cf. the ancient Egyptian love-ditty (M 44, x): Oh, that I were 
her ring on her finger ! D 205, 8 we have a song from Aleppo, in which 
the bride is addressed as follows : Let me be a silver necklace, shake 
me on thy breast ; let me be a fine garment and put me on thy body ; let 
me be a golden earring and hang me in thy ear ! D 276, 1. 16 we find, 
Put me in thy pocket instead of thy handkerchief ! 

(9) The last line is generally translated, If a man would give all the 
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned ; but the 
last hemistich is interrogative. In the same way we must translate in 
Prov. 6, 30, Do not people despise a thief, even if he steal to satisfy his 
hunger ? 

(38-43) These figures refer to the notes on my paper (H) cited in 
n. 1 on No. 7. 



K The Book of Canticles 55 



Some Critical Notes on the Hebrew Text of Canticles. 

I subjoin here a few brief critical notes on the Heb. text of Cant. A 
systematic discussion of the Ancient Versions must be reserved for the 
critical edition of the Heb. text in The Polychrome Bible (SBOT). Nor 
do I deem it necessary to repeat the statements bearing on the text, 
which have been made in the explanatory notes to the translation or in 
the notes to my paper (H) on Some Difficult Passages in the Song of 
Songs, printed in vol. 21 of the Journal of Biblical Literature (1902). 
When I prepared those notes I did not think I should be able to 
add any special notes on the Heb. text ; otherwise I should not have 
included in the explanatory notes several remarks which might have 
been reserved for the critical notes. It is preferable to keep the critical 
and philological remarks entirely distinct from the explanatory notes. 
The latter should be free from all purely technical details, and this 
course will be followed when I publish the translation in a different 
form. 

The metrical problems can be discussed only in connection with 
an accented transliteration of the Hebrew text which will appear 
elsewhere. 

1 (1) rrabirb *I12J&< is a later addition. In the following love-ditties 
and wedding-songs the relative pronoun is throughout not *I1CK> 
but (cf. Siegfried's Neuhebr. Gramm., § 29, b). 

3 (6) It is unnecessary to read, with Budde and Siegfried, XV2 instead 
of |$l h £ ; refers to the bride, not to the threshing-board ; cf. 
Tyler in the Jewish Quarterly Review (JQR) 11, 515. 

For M tYTOTO read riYWrQ; so, too, nbn^Il for ffl, 
FlbrftJD in 7,1 (2). rH)J h fr must be derived from a stem 
Ho be high, to ascend' (cf. TEjfc and for ^DfitfD); cf. 

kima qutri liteUi 'may it go up like smoke;' see Delitzsch, 
HW 600 b . Assyr. temeru 'to cover with dust' seems to be a 
denominative verb. Cf. our English phrase 'their jackets 
smoked,' i. e., emitted dust, or 'I will smoke his jacket' = I will 
dust his jacket, raise dust from it by beating him (German, ich 
werde ihm die Jacke ausklopferi). 

bb/2 , at the beginning of the fourth hemistich, is correct ; the 
preposition "p3 must not be canceled (against Budde). 
(7) For M tlfibxtibXD read ""jb^buJ and relegate fTa'blZJ to the margin. 

Cheyne's statement (JQR 11, 563) that M O h lM is certainly a 
corruption of KH H^'btsblD is certainly erroneous. I regret to say 
that I cannot accept any of Cheyne's emendations proposed in his 
paper The Song of the Palanquin (JQR 11, 561-564) and in his 
other articles in the same volume of JQR. See also EB 2805. 



56 



Hebraica 



3 (8) For M nib^bn Cheyne (I. c, p. 562) reads nifcUb 'lions.' He 
supposes 'that, far back in the history of the text, the scribe mis- 
wrote Tfb^bl , and then corrected this by writing ffifcOb • This 
latter word, under the hand of a thoughtless scribe, became 
"pDnb> and this, by the ingenuity of an editor, who had both 
learning and exegetical skill, was converted into "jVlEM .' This 
conjecture, it seems to me, shows learning rather than exegetical 
skill. 

M IRTISH is not a dittogram of "pinb but a corruption of 
(fiopetov. The original vocalization may have been ^"SH ; we 
must have the article. Cases in which the traditional pronuncia- 
tion of a later Hebrew word is based on a single corrupt Biblical 
passage are not exceptional.* "p"HSn is a synonym of jTJtflE 
v. 7 ; the following ffl, "jb?J»1 lb HlfiJ is a relative clause ; \ lit., 
« the (j>opeiov (which) the King made for himself of the wood of 
Lebanon, its columns he made of silver, &c. Cf. Ges.-Kautzsch 27 , 
§ 143, c. 

For 151 ~pl2T\ Cheyne proposes to read Hj^b^n (Solomon 
made himself this artful work). 

(10) The £ prefixed to DblDlT tVDl at the end of the verse in M 
belongs to D^DIH 'ebony' which must be substituted for M 

: t 

nnn^> following Gratz, Martineau, Siegfried, Cheyne. We need 
not prefix n to U^2ft ; cf. D^TBO ft3b?52 5,14 fl, xffid); see 
Ges.27, § 117, y. 

The clause ^ff\t\ "p2jT\^ must be transposed to the end of 
the verse (Budde). Cheyne proposes to read D h /Ji»bX (cf. 2 Chr. 
2,7): Its seat — almug-wood in the center, | inlaid with ebony. 

(11) For ntXl instead of M HDX^ see Critical Notes on Ezra-Neh. 
(SBOT), p. 71, 1. 19. In the same way we must read flD^H for 

* M rt»Fl 2,13 (■<) and htta for M ^ 4,15 (n). 

Gloss i, is omitted in ® p ,'but not in <£ A . 

2 

6 (10) The fourth hemistich, M lYlbjTO HE^K must be inserted after 
the first hemistich. Winckler, AoF 1, 293 (i. e., Altorientalische 
Forschungen, first series, p. 293), proposes to read Hlb^lj (Nergal- 
Mars). G. Buchanan Gray (JQR 11,97) thinks that the render- 
ing 'terrible as serried hosts' is at least as powerful a figure as, if 
a little less picturesque than, 'terrible as an army with flags.' 
Cheyne (JQR 11,234) considers nibj^D^ tfEPtit to be an interpo- 
lation in the present passage. The same suggestion was made 

* Cf. Crit. Notes on Ezekiel (SBOT), p. 71, 1. 46. 

t Cf. the relative clauses "p^ "H© "pi 1,13 (T) ; plIPl 1.3 (T) ; *]b VI3B2 "HI"! 
7,U(t3). 



z 



The Book of Canticles 



57 



6 byBudde. But the clause is interpolated in 6,4 (H, f), not here. 
For Cheyne's explanation of tVlbljuS see note on 6,4 (ft). 

7 (1) It is unnecessary to read, with Budde, "^0 for M "QlTZJ 5 nor does 

■^C mean ' come near.' Bickell reads fr'-blOT "QIC h 2123 ' Stay, 
stay, become familiar (do not be shy ! ).' 

For rr"3lblEn see the Explanatory Notes. 

For n nm cf. 2 nan (Aof 1,293). 

For iTnft HE 'won't you look,' i. e., 'ye must all look,' cf. 
5,8(1) lb *\TZT\ TV2 'won't you tell him,' i. e., 'please, do tell 
him,' and D 343, 1 ma t hod din 'ye must mourn;' cf. Wright- 
de Goeje 3 , 2, 311 A (|*j-£> ^° 'pray, stand up'); Caspari-Muller 5 , 
§534. Contrast 8,4 (3,0) TTW)T\ HEl Win TV2 'Don't stir 
or startle ! ' 

For ffl nbn^S read nbTOn ; see Ges.-Buhlis, s. y. D^jTO ; c/. 

tYraTa for m nraTO 3,6 ftO. 

may be an old 'plural of the accusative' like 0^^2125 ? 
D h 53 ; c/. Crit. Notes on Isaiah (SBOT), p. 157, 1. 18, and ZA 2, 267, 
n. 2. In the same way D" , !H^ is not a dual but an archaic pluralis 
extensivus like D^H2 1>7 The dual is a secondary dif- 

ferentiation and originally identical with the Assyr. (and Ethiopic) 
plural in -ani (for -ami); cf. Haupt, Sumer. Familiengesetze 
(Leipzig, 1879), p. 70, below, ad p. 18. It is therefore not neces- 
sary to read D^TO • 
(2) Bickell cancels tl m /2 > following (K v ; but <& A prefixes rt, and cf. 
v. 7 and 4,10 (ft). 

For JH PQ Bickell reads pn hh tt[Tl] ^2 fin • 

For ^pl^n (c/. p?2H 5,6) Gratz suggested ^pl^H 'ribbons.' 

For M D h ^bn = D^bn see ZA 2, 275, n. 1. 

• t -: 

Ummanu is common in Assyrian; see HW 86 b . 

(8) IHKT at the beginning of this verse, which Bickell cancels, 
should be inserted after T2PQ in the following verse (gloss p); 
cf n^T TtiOETl m 1. 3 of the Moabite stone (Ges.-Kautzsch 27 , 
§ 126, y) and Siegfried's Neuhebr. Gramm., § 29 ; also modern 
Arabic el-bint di (Spitta, §143, a) for oUJ! 

(4) M ■'3123 at the beginning of this verse should be prefixed to 
^JISPl in the second hemistich. 
M rjtfPl should be pointed ^Qfcta or ^tfP) (cf. 4,5). The 
original form is tu'amu (HW 697 b ). The form ^fc&n, ^i&SPl 
is, therefore, not impossible; cf. Targumic "pQVFl (Lagarde, 
Mittheilungen, 3,29, n. 1). Contrast note on 3, 11 (£). 

(9) For M V303D we must point V5D3D> c/. Assyr. sissinnu, Syr. 

jiWiW 'spadix' (not panicle). 
(6) According to Cheyne (JQR 11,237) -jb'O fdSHitt "jTDSI PlWl is, 
to put it briefly, a dittogram of b"3*0!D ""pb^ "j 125^1 which 



58 



Hebraica 



2 



7 precedes. Cheyne proposes to read : tlWl bE*OlD ^IDfcO ftWl 
D^'EH CH^SS j the pendent locks of thy head are like Carmel ; 
pleasant are they as an orchard of pomegranate trees (cf. 4, 13). 
M D n tt»-n (c/. H, n. 24), he thinks, is a corruption of !T±n , 
the H before d^ElTH > together with TlOfcfc , represents C"P3 • 
He 'can see no other solution ; if a doubt be possible with regard 
to the second half of it, no hesitation can be admissible with 
regard to the first.' I hesitate. 
(5) Cheyne (JQR 11, 404), following AoF 1, 293, proposes to read 
TDTD instead of M 'yuzfft ; he renders : 

Thy neck is like the tower of Senir 

Which looks toward Damascus. 

D h n*t T\2 , adds Cheyne, is probably a corruption of D*OH n"U 
= 'Ain Karim, near St. Mary's Well, a little to the SW of 
Jerusalem. He translates therefore : 

Thine eyes are like Solomon's pools 

By the wood of Beth-haccerem, 
reading for M *#125, following Winckler. 

Cheyne thinks, with Rashi and Gratz, that means 'face' 
(D*aB). 

For 151 , J'DTfl)-Q Winckler (AoF 1, 294) suggested "pnb)"Q 
(Ezek. 27,18), but Cheyne (JQR 11, 405) says, we must certainly 
read jTT2"blZJ> although 'he knows that this is a considerable 
alteration.' 

Winckler, AoF 1, 294 proposed to read : 

■pnbm rwn y?y TDton ^ycb tfro 

that is, Thy neck is like the tower of Senir, thine eyes like pools 
* in Helbon, at the grove under the terebinths. He adds that if 
any one considers these emendations too violent he may try to 
obtain a reasonable meaning in a simpler way. I have availed 
myself of this generous permission. 
(10) For M ITQjn -pa (Ges.-Kautzsch27, § 128, w) we may read, with 

Bickeii, niton f*?. 

M D^UT ^FlS'lB inil is correct. It is not necessary to read 
h 3l2il ^PlSto or VftSlE, or D h 3llil D h ft2i2J • ® LKavovpevos 

- • - t : t • : t ~ ■ _ t: 

XeiAeo-tv /xov koI oSovctlv 'made fit for my lips and my teeth' and 
& JL±o ^Zoan? ^"jiso?, did not understand this clause; but 5b 
JJ'TOT is better than (3* LKavovfievos which is merely a guess. For 
3 labiisque et dentibus illius ad ruminandum, see the Explana- 
tory Notes. 

(7) For ih ttawnn nana read own na nana ; 'a, e^arep 

rpv^v, S> Ulaas z^o. Cf. Cheyne, JQR 11, 407. 



3 



The Book of Canticles 



59 



7 (3) W ^TVB must be pointed rjTltp* from an intransitive form 

■"HID = sirar, syncopated sirr 'mystery, secret parts' (cf. ^3 

tasarra and 'to keep a concubine,' &c.) and 'to 

undress.' 

For ffi nnon Cheyne (JQR II, 404) proposes to read 
"rijO "piS 'a chalice of pure gold' {cf. Job 28,15). 

j 

(11) For IE -"by read ^btf; the second, fifth, and eighth forms of 
^jjLwu (syn. ^S** are cons * rue( ^ w ^ n ^ i 8 

not necessary to read, with Nestle and Ball, n2TlW (ffi kol 
ifxk -fj liTLdTpo^r] avTov) instead of M nplTUfl • If Ball considers 
'the reference of this suspicious term to unphilological,' 
he may satisfy his philological conscience by pointing the word 
npYlZJFl with '123 = In Assyrian we have stiqu (which may 
have a s 2 = "l25, J*) as a synonym of xegallu 'abundance, 
luxuriousness,' and this may have the meaning of 'libidinous- 
ness,' like kuzbu, xicbu, baltu, lalu, lullu., &c. (HW 647 b , 
324b, 287b 177b, 377* ; cf. especially KB 6, 126). ffi iirixrrpo<M 
and airo(TTpo^>ri (Gen. 3,16) may be euphemistic substitutes. 
Contrast Crit. Notes on Genesis (SBOT), p. 48, 1. 25. 
2 (1) For the striking parallel to this passage in Theocr. 10, 28 see 
n. 18 on No. 9 of the Translation. 

1 (5) Wellhausen, Prolegomena^ (1895), p. 218, n. 1, proposed to read 

TV2bw = 3<a\dfuoi, 'XaXfxrjvot (Pliny 6, 118, Salmani), the neigh- 
bors and allies of the Nabateans, instead of fH rtS'bUJ? and the 
same emendation was suggested by Winckler (AoF 1, 196. 292. 
295, n. 1 ; 2, 552) ; but it is not necessary to depart from JH. 
(6) For the pleonastic prolepsis of the pronoun in h 3£OtvbX see 
Crit. Notes on Ezra-Neh. (SBOT), p. 71, 1. 31 ; cf. Bertholet (in 
Marti) on Neh. 13,23. Bickell's conjecture, is not good. 

The masc. form although the DblZJlT are addressed, 

is not exceptional; see also notes on 8,4 (3) and 5,8 (*)). 

2 (15) Winckler (AoF 1, 293) proposes to read *|Tn h 'they shall see us' 

instead of |5C ITH^ • He thinks the passage refers to a tryst (cf 
No. 11). The little foxes, he says, seem to be not foxes but 
weasels or some similar small animals. 

It is not necessary to read, with Budde and Siegfried, l^'J^ 
for M D^/J^D • 

8 (9) For the brief hemistichs fc^n TOlfi DiS and ^fl ftbl DJfcl 

see Crit. Notes on Proverbs (SBOT), p. 33, 1. 49. 

Budde is inclined to derive from (cf 2 S 20,3); 

Noldeke thinks, tTb^ ^lISM may mean ' we will nail upon it ;' 
Siegfried proposes to read nibS; but this is unnecessary: 



60 



Hebraica 



1 



8 nib »Tb3> "Hl^D means lit., we will fasten upon it (German, 

T 

wir wollen darauf befestigeri) boards of cedar wood. mi£7J, 
&c, means 'fastness' (German, Feste). 

(10) We must add PSST 1 ^ to M TV2T\ ^itf, although <&&3 have 
simply iyio Tei^os, Via-* p|, ego mums. 

Gratz's emendation y$ (rfib*TOD) for Tfc* is not good. 

For M TD^n (& SA ei/ 6<f>6a\ixoLs avrov, 3 coram eo, £> 
voi nU'Sn ), referring to the lover, read, with (5r v , ev ocfyOaXfxoh 
avTwv, DJTD h 3D> referring to the brothers. 

ilfil fttf&iE is fern. part. Hif. of X2T, but it should be pointed 
r^£TD (for maucit, mauci't, mauci'at); cf. note on jTJDK£ 
3,11 (X). 

(2) For M -p^ read -pE; contrast ffi, ^ 7,10 (1) for "p3 . 

IK ^ is correct ; cf. -pa t\^W^2 n Dp!£? 1,2 (T) ; JOTE -pT 
-jrYU Ps. 36,9. 

For UK ^ftn read Qiji-H I c/. Crit. Notes on Isaiah (SBOT), 
p. 83, L 11 ; p. 117, 1. 36. 

7 (13) Gloss -q (ffir e/cet Swcra) rovs fxaaroik fxov vol; cf. above, p. 50, 

n. *) appears in 05 not only after 7,13 (ft, ii) but also after 
6,11 (ft, iv). 

8 (4) M DSriitf need not be corrected to "pfiK ; see my remarks in 

Crit. Notes on Judges (SBOT), p. 66, 1. 29 and Crit. Notes on 
Ezra-Neh., p. 64, 1. 49 ; cf. Siegfried's Neuhebr. Gramm. (Berlin, 
1884), § 27, a and note on 5,3 (1). 

(fix inserts the hemistich iv Tats Svvdfxea-LV kol rats 1<t\v(T€(tlv 
tov dypov =M miDn nib^Z 1» tYlfi02» 2, 7 (T), not only in 
the present passage, but also in 5, 8 (}) ; cf. on 2, 7 (T). 

HE in TOl ITWltltt is negative (cf. Prov. 20,24); 

% contrast note on iTfJjn 7, 1 (2). 

(11) The addition of tTTlt which was afterwards supplemented by 
rtlS'blflb (contrast note on 6, 8), was probably suggested by 

rvnsb rrn d-0 1 k 21,1 and +r*rb rrn is. 5,1. 

For M littn b^n read -pftfi b3D I see n. 3 on No. 4 ; con- 
trast t^J-pi, Q e re tffi'l 1,17 (T). Gratz proposed to read 
■jWfi b3?a. Cheyne (EB 405) thinks that ilE m {\ m CTl is 
merely an incorrect repetition of the name M/Q'blZJ- 

"j)T0 is impersonal ; see Crit. Notes of Numbers (SBOT), p. 43, 
1.31. We may also read the Nif'al, "jpfti or the passive Qal 
(Ges.27, § 52, e. s; § 53, u) ipfi (Ges.27, § 121, a; cf. Num. 32,5; 
1 K 2,21),* but it is not necessary. 

* Some of the Nif'al forms "jJT\5 > i &c, might just as well be pointed "jp|3 , ^DRD ; 

cf. npb, impf. np" 1 ) &c., and vol. 3, p. 39, of this Journal, also JAOS 22, 53. 



n 



The Book of Canticles 



61 



8 The meter requires the insertion of bpTT ; it dropped out 

because it was customary to omit bpT23 in such phrases (Ges. 27 , 
§ 134, n). 

6 (8) For ffl TO*"! read, with Budde and Siegfried, TO'birb 5 contrast 
above, note on 8,11. It is unnecessary to insert, with Bickell, 
iTI "HirQ after v. 8. See Addendum*, on p. 74. 
(9) After fcOfTHlTO h HftH (the is enclitic: tammathi 

axxath-hi) we must insert fcT , iTT , »TVl»"It3 • 

For M nfttf b and HPllbrb read fiftKE and rWlbi«E = 
rmWB and fiHifib*E ; cf. (^S) DmE- In post- 

t : t : - • I v •• 

Biblical Hebrew Qtf is used for womb (cf. German Mutter = 
uterus and 'Ztirb D h HEmi Dm Jud. 5,30)* The 

expressions fift^/J and firrib'F'D are unparalleled, but this is 
no argument against the correctness of the emendation. If the 
phrases had not been unusual, they would not have been mis- 
understood for more than 2000 years ; see my remarks on 

nrrca Dma, Ps. 110,3, in jhuc, no. 114, P . no* n. **. 

h 

4 (8) <& 8evpo = ^Htf , imp. of HHtf ' to come,' instead of M Titf ; so, 

too, 3, Veni de Libano, &c, and & ^1 n\ . 

"HITCH (®> SlcXcvo-t], & n\z ; 3 coronaberis) means 'thou 
mayst descend,' not 'look down;' so Magnus, Kritische Bearbei- 
tung und Erklarung des Hohen Liedes Salomo's (Halle, 1842), 
p. 206; also Winckler, AoF 1, 193; 292, n. 1 ; 294, n. 2. 

For M © has airo dpx^? 7riorea>s, mistaking the 

proper name for a common noun, as in 6,4 (H) : evSoKia = ffit 

n2T"lH5- rij"J!^ is not the Amanus, on the borders of Cilicia and 
Northern Syria, E of the Gulf of Alexandretta. The Orientals 
are no Alpinists. Contrast Budde, ad loc. 

Benzinger (ad 1 Chr. 5,23) thinks that "p£HH1 was originally 
an explanatory gloss to TDTZ) (with Waw explicative; see Crit. 
Notes on Ezra-Neh., in SBOT, p. 68, 1. 53; p. 70, 1. 17). The 
meter, however, requires a second name. In 1 Chr. 5,23 "TDTDl 
may be a subsequent addition to "p/JIFnb^l 12 > and ^iHI 
■jYQIH a tertiary gloss to TSiZJl • According to Wetzstein (ZAT 
3, 278) TD'dJ is a Saf 'el of T|D (the mountain of light, i. e., snow) ; 
cf. D*H130> a euphemism for blindness. 

5 (2) The first double-line of the first stanza has been restored on the 

basis of 3,1 (2^); ^TH has been substituted for ^33 rdnKlD 
which we find in and If. The present poem does not use 
this phrase. 



*See also Delitzsch's Prolegomena (Leipzig, 1886), p. 109. 



62 



Hebraica 



1 



5 The scriptio plena is used to prevent the reading 

which may occasionally have been introduced as a joke 
(I am an old maid, but my heart is alert). 

The pointing h rfi£1p of M is just as incorrect as the pro- 
nunciation 8,10 : (}). We must point ""fli^p (Ges. 27 , 
§ 9, o) or h rri&p; so, too, v. 11. The stem is y£p (^jl&J! JaS 
(jaiLjU), cf. j^a-o quccetha, iLcai' qucce. 

For M XT*! read izTto^l = \J*) , pi. 5 so, too, ^m'tD = 

* ^Lc£ in 2,11 (*) for UK inD ; c/. H, n. 61. 

t : 

(3) The suffix Q in M D3 jt2^ need not be corrected to "j ; cf. note 
on 8,4 (J). 

(4) The rhythm requires the insertion of tbl2 after M linn "p- 

The reading *b? (so many MSS and editions) for M 
(ffi €7r' avrov, £ sj.cn aJ^L , 3 et venter mens intremuit ad tactum 
ejus) is preferable; cf. Ps. 42,6. 12; 43,5. Budde and Siegfried 
prefer 

M T\212 JlfcttT , which appears in the Received Text 

between the first and the second double-line of v. 6, must be 
inserted, with Budde, at the end of v. 4 ; but Budde's suggestion 
to add *\yi2^ after IT at the end of the first hemistich of v. 4 
is not good ; nor need we insert, with Bickell, "lb fiSOlDD between 
M ^12533 and TOp, fiS^. 

(5) h Tnb is an erroneous repetition from the end of the first hemi- 
stich of the following verse ; cf. Crit. Notes on Isaiah (SBOT), 
p. 128, 1. 50. 

The second hemistich bWDfi t^B'D b$ stands in M at the 
end of the verse, but it must be inserted, following Budde, after 
the first hemistich ; it is, however, unnecessary to add a verb ' I 
grasped,' as Budde suggests. Siegfried cancels the hemistich, 
following Meier. 

(7) V. 7 is correctly canceled by Bickell. Budde considers only 
rTOhn ^ETZJ a subsequent addition, and perhaps also the pre- 
ceding ^252 ; but *^$)2 is indispensable. 

According to Winckier (AoF 1, 293) M T3D d h llb»1 
is a conditional clause (if they find me, they will hit me, &c). 

(8) (£ inserts after the first hemistich, kv tolls Swd/xeo-iv /cat lv rats iayy- 
(tco-lv tov ay pov, cf. on 8,4 (j). 

For ITSlH |"ftj see on 7, 1 (2) ; 5TJ is used here owing to the 
preceding conditional Qtf ; lb IT Sri "•TH IfiCBOn Dtf 
(cf. 2,7; contrast 8,4), would be impossible. 

For the masculine form ITSifi see on 1,6 (j). It is unneces- 
sary to read, with Bickell and Budde, ^"nb instead of ffl lb • 

(9) For M *0F&2\Btl read "iDrDDTEfi ', contrast note on 8,4 ft). 
(10) For M nnn^/J bljl cf. G. Buchanan Gray's paper on bjH in 



1 



The Book of Canticles 



63 



5 JQR 11, 97, below, and Winckler, AoF 2, 174, n. 1. Cheyne 
(JQR 11, 233. 236) proposes to read b^S 'perfect' (in beauty) 
instead of M bi:n ■ 

(11) Gratz's emendation ^FO for £51 Dt"0> which is endorsed by 
Budde, is entirely superfluous. (3r VA have xp^crtov kol which 
was corrupted in (K s to Ke<£a£ (phonetic spelling) ; see Lagarde, 
Mittheilungen 2, 81. We must read TSl UTO which was pro- 
nounced TS^K DM5 J cf. Dan. 10,5. In Jer. 10,9 and 1 K 10,18 

T 

the prefixed 12 is a later addition. For T31H = TS^ cf. 12TX = 
12T; see Crit. Notes on Proverbs (SBOT), p. 51, 1. 1 and cf. BA 
1, 260, n. 27 and Addenda on p. 327. §b toon? i-^i-s f] ova-o, 
3 caput ejus aurum optimum. 

For M D^ron read rtfttj cf. tpDfcO tbT\ 7,6 (n) and 
: ' curly.' The prefixed" TmHp (IK Wl3flpj see on v. 2) 
is an explanatory gloss. There may have been a byform 
D h b^b^, but D^bFlbri cannot be right. & has ft ui^ola, 
© fioo-Tpvxoi avrov eAarat, 3 comae ejus sicut elatae palmarum. 

(12) fflr has for this stanza : offjOaXfJiol avrov <os 7repio-Tepal €7rt 7rXr)pd)- 
fxara v8olto)v, XeXovcr fxivai iv ydXaKTt, Ka6rj(xz.vai liri irX-qp^ixara 
(d& SA -f vSdrwv) ; so DT2 "p^Stf is translated in the same way 
as ffl n^b^2 b^ • The original text of the second hemistich was 
probably t\$))12 b$ rVniZT, and DTE "p^Etf b^ may be an 
explanatory gloss to n^b^3 b$ , which afterwards crept into the 
text. The second and the fourth hemistichs in the Received 
Text appear to be doublets. The original text of the fourth 
hemistich may have been DTDIBUBH tYljilO (cf. 7,3) referring to 
the eyelashes. 3 renders, Oculi ejus sicut columbae super 
rivulos aquarum, quae lacte sunt lotae, et resident juxta fluenta 
plenissima, and Sb has, ^« ilsoi jLkio? j a*L* |Jq-o *»ciaLIL 
U n^N i, ^oLlo 1 . It is not impossible that jZ nViN ^- 
' perfection,' which is meaningless in this connection, is a trans- 
position of |Zo\Vi^ = ] >2^ae = irXrjpwixa ; cf. the Saf el derivative 

I . Svn 4, 'completion, fulfilment, perfection.' The Saf el usamli 
and the Saf el of the intensive stem, usmalll, and its reflexive- 
passive us tarn alii or ultamalll are common in Assyrian 
(HW410*). Milu (=millu, mil'u, mila'u; cf. xitu 'sin'= 
xittu, xit'u) means in Assyrian 'abundance of water, high 
water, flood,' and this word appears in Syriac as fc^b/J (Noldeke, 
Syr. Gr. 2 , § 111, n. 2). The original form seems to have been 
mila'u, with xJLc!, mile'u; see Haupt, Assyr. E-vowel, p. 18. 
For ^b7J cf. Assyr. forms like xinietu = f"ft$£H, xitetu = 

fifcttan, &c. 

T - 

It is not necessary to read, with Bickell, D*W *T^D VDTP in 
the first hemistich; cf. T"p ^b»Ttf3 1,5 and DlblB r>8£1E3 
8,10(3). T l: " ' : 



(54 



Hebraica 



T 



5 (13) For m read flilUlD, following <& ok <j>i*\ai rov dpw- 

/uuxtos <j>vova-ai fxvp^LKa, 3 sicut areolae aromatum consitae a 
pigmentariis, 5b simply j Vim^>? jikaaAio f+) , omitting iTllbljft 
DTip^lE- The 3 prefixed to fWW, which Bickell cancels, 
is correct. 

For M tVlb'TOJ point T\^j)2 ', so Bathgen, Ottli, Budde ; cf 
the Beilagen to Kautzsch's AT (one of the two critical notes on 
the text of Cant, in the work, the other one refers to fSl ^TS^L 
tTDIir 7, 10). Siegfried prefers M. 

(14) It is not necessary to read D n "PQC2 ; cf. Ges. 27 , § 121, d. 

(15) For M e/cXe/cTo's, 3 electus, & U\) substitute ; cf. 
Ezek. 17,23. ffl, seems to be an explanatory gloss which 
crept into the text and displaced the original T 1 ^ ; cf. note on 

D^brnn 6,6 (n). 

'(16) Bickell's insertion "p before DblZJlT T\*i2D, is impossible. 

T 

1 (15) V. 15 is a scribal expansion derived from 4,1 (fi). It is the femi- 

nine pendant to v. 16 just as 2, 2 ( j , /3) is the feminine pendant to 
2,3. Bickell cancels the second fl3^ Tj!D»™I ; Budde, the following 
D h 5V Tp"2 at the end of the verse ; it is sufficient to omit the 
second Jl3 h ; cf. 4, 1 (fi). 

(16) at the beginning is indispensable (against Budde), but 
we may omit the second jq^ , following j$. Bickell's emendation 
WQTj C|tf D^SP is superfluous. 

For ffl JlMJH c /- rny remarks in Crit. Notes on Proverbs 
(SBOT), p. 35, 1. 16. Budde suggests tlW or ftjpt) ; c/. 7,7 
(n). dSc renders ow/aos, & ^s-*^ (c/. 3, 10), 3 floridus. 

(17) IE I^DSl is an amplificative plural; see Crit. Notes on Proverbs 
(SBOT), p. 34, 1. 31. It is not necessary to read, with Budde, the 
singular IDrTS, (& ^^>)- 

For Mi iDt^m read, with the Q«re, 13trm (c/. 7,6 = 2, 7), 

• IT 

or, better, 15tT*Tl blDl ■ Wetzstein's emendation IjtTFil (Budde, 
Tt3 h Fl1) is unnecessary ; nor need we read, with Budde, Vt^ST"! ; 

T 

see H, n. 24. 

2 (4) ffl, h D^ h 2H (3 introduxit me) is correct in the present passage ; 

but in 1,4 it must be emended to the imperative h D<$ h n»"! • & has 
the imperative eicrayayere fxc (<£ -*J^^]) here, in the second chap- 
ter, but not in the first. Gratz suggested "^"H • 

For M 'pfi tYQ Cheyne (JQR 11, 234)"suggests "jBH tV2- 
For b^H see Gray's paper cited in the note on.5, 10 ("]). Accord- 
ing to Cheyne (JQR 11, 234) v. 4 b 'is surely a corrupt form of 
v. 5c ; mntf nblH"^ became distorted into ^ ibrttl 



T 



The Book of Canticles 



65 



2 rnn&S • .This is not really bold ; it is an every day proceeding, 
and justified by numerous parallel cases which will at once occur 
to scholars like Budde.' — I doubt it. Gratz proposed Slb^jfi for 
M ibjTl ; and Bruston, S&y?] (© rd^are, & ofla^). 3 ordinavit 
in me caritatem. 

(5) For M ^50230 and ^ifign read ^520 and ^IBl ; both verbs 
refer to the bridegroom. 

Bickell's insertion ^Tnb 1T3t1 before iUl nblft^D 

^!33$ nn»l^ is unnecessary. The last clause of the verse is a 
scribal expansion derived from 5,8 (*]). Bickell reads SnbiFJlZJ? 
as in 5,8, for M fibim^ • 

(6) Bruston's emendation b^Hf! 'she envelops' for b T\TT\ is 
not good. The parallel passage 8,3 has simply t)Ht\ 
instead of *tD*Ob tDHtV We may read *123tflb MftfiE > but it 
is not necessary. Bickell thinks that v. 6 should be canceled 
as a repetition of 8,3; but 8,3 (3, 6) is a scribal expansion 
derived from the present passage. 

1"~(12) We must not point, with Budde and Siegfried, "itp instead of M 
"jt"0 (© eSeoKcv). 3 translates correctly, Dum esset rex in accubitu 
suo (B oi nVinro), nardus mea dedit odorem suum. 
(13) Winckler, KB 5, 298, n. 1, thinks that Tan means 'gravel 

of myrrh,' i. e., granulated myrrh. 

The second hemistich, M "pb* 1 h T£ "pll , is a relative clause ; 
see on 3,8 dr v has only aTro&co-fxos rrjs o-raKT^s dSeA^iSo? /xov 
i/xoL, h d/A7reXw(rtv EvyaSSei, omitting the two intervening hemi- 
stichs ; but 13 b and 14 a are given in (Sr SAP . 

(2) For m m^s nip^sb ^pi&r <mw™ ^ ^ix^dnov 

0-ro/xaros avro£, 3 osculetur me osculo oris sui, 15 ]£^o-i*aJ «i n *J i 
ca^as)) read -ps ftlp^lBDE ^pU33 (Martineau, ilDpic"; see on 
v. 4) ; but if v. 1 is preceded by vv. 12-14, the third person of 
IHdrM would not be impossible ; nor would the transition from 
the third to the second person in the second hemistich be open to 
any serious objection. Bickell and Siegfried do not alter KB in 
the first hemistich, but read for "pTj in the second 

hemistich. 

For <& pao-Tot (3 ubera) = instead of M D^"H see n. 17 

on No. 9 of the Translation. 

For the preposition in tVlp^'O 8,2 (3). 

(3) Budde suggests fT^I for ffl, FP^lb at the beginning of this verse 
(j& \j24 ^jJL^flLO > m *j \) CRP kcu do-fir) fxvpwv aov virep 7rdvra ra 

apw/aara = Draizn bM -pM mi 4,10 (n, ix). Gmtz's 

emendation "pEtoH for ffl, "p3UuS is unnecessary. 

iffil p^lin is a relative clause ; cf. Luzzato's emendation 
nW (Ges.2?, §155, f) for 151 ni"J *UlnT Eccl. 10,1 and above, 



66 



Hebeaica 



T 



1 note on v. 13 b . It is unnecessary to read, with Bickell, h p*lfl 
= Thracian; or, with Gratz, plTOfi (Esth. 2,3.9.12); or, with 
Budde, pisna (3 oleum effusum, (£ p , fxvpov UKevmOiv, & |?ai65 j wtv), 
or pn^ , "or -J^TD p^TO 5 or, with Siegfried, p^HJ . IE "pu? 
is here construed as fern., just as Xfffilft in v. 6. The fern, form 
may have been suggested by nfittS/jan (cf. 5). 

Nor need we read, with Budde, -pais or "p'lZD for IE -pais 
at the end of this hemistich. 
(4) The sing, suffixes in IE h DfcTnn must not be altered, 

with Gratz and Martineau, into the plur. 1^3*1; c/. 

on v. 2. 

(Ir p repeats -paiZJ IT'lb* from the beginning of v. 3, after 
"P*"lH^ : 07rt(ra) crov eis oafxrjv fivpoyv crov Bpap.ovp.ev, 3 post te CUV- 
remus in odorem unguentorum tuorum. 

For IE *28rj!n (® p eiarjveyK€v p.e, 3, introduxit me) read 
^DiST^n? imperative, following & ^Jq-^o^ j nSv »i »Ns) (con- 
trast note on 2, 4) ; the following IE "jb?-fl is vocative (Ges. 27 , 
§ 126, f). Siegfried prefers IE but inserts 4 a before v. 5 (3). 

Bickell's %1^T\ instead of IE J-J^H5 is unnecessary. 

For IE Vnn to Tafxdov avrov, 3 in cellaria sua) 

read "p^fi (Budde, "p*nj"0 following 5. 

For IE ~p (ffi p ev o-ot, I in te, & ^o), on the other hand, read 
12 (Budde, da). 

For IE rTOTD (& p dyaTnjo-o/xev, but & r=>^ , 3 memores) read, 
with Martineau and Budde, jrP3TZ5!D> cf. 5,1 (gloss e); Gratz, 
iTfWlM'. Siegfried prefers IE" and refers to Ps. 71,16. See, 
however, E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern 
Egyptians*, 2, 78, n. 2, 

2 Q.7) IE 20 (ffi a-n-oa-Tpeif/ov, 3 revertere, <& ^s<nZ|) belongs to the end 

of the fourth hemistich ; it is the imperative of the denominative 
verb nnD, *. e., to be ^2105321 5 cf. 1,12 (iv). 

8 (14) In the same way fT"Q in the variant at the end of the Book 
(gloss f) has an erotic meaning; it is a denominative verb, 
derived from 'bolt,' meaning 'bolt the open door' (8,9), &c. 

2 (17) The second double-line of the last but one stanza of this poem 
has been restored on the basis of the variant in 4, 6 (fl , 8), but we 
might also keep IE *\TQ in the text and supplement the 

last hemistich from 8,14: dTQTZn The addition of a 

parallel hemistich to IE *\TQ b^ would have made the 

meaning of this objectionable phrase too obvious. Bickell reads, 
"IM TftyZLl h b21 d^ata h b^« The translation 'on the 

mountains of malobathron' (cf. Field ad loc.) seems to me very 
improbable (ffi eirl 6prj /coiXw^aTwi/, 3 super montes Bether, but <£ 
iiiaiis ^io4 \± as in 8,14). 



T 



The Book of Canticles 



67 



2 (7) For M instead of "pM^ see note on 8,4 0, 0). 

According to Winckler, AoF 1, 293 Dbl2^ h FfijH does not 
mean 'maidens of Jerusalem,' but 'inhabitants/ but cf. the 
parallels from D cited in the Explanatory Notes. Father Oussani 
has called my attention to the modern Egyptian love-songs in 
Lane's Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians 5 (London, 
1871) 2, 78 where we find ^Lo L> '0 maidens of 

the city (of Cairo)' and SL^tX^XuJ L> '0 maidens of 

Alexandria.' Contrast Crit. Notes on Isaiah (SBOT), p. 182*, 1. 30, 
and Ges.27, § 122, s. 

For the plur. tVlfcO^ (®r iv Swa/xecriv Kal iv tcr^vcrco-tv rov dypov) 
instead of ni"Q£ see note on D^bft 7,2 (3). 

t : 

m such clauses implies an ellipsis : if ye stir or startle our 

loving, aw rei DTft» p^-ntor nb! contrast Ges.27, 

§ 149, b. 

For the masculine forms IT^Fi and ^H^Fi see above, note 
on 1,6 ft). 

3 neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, quoadusque ipsa velit 
seems to have read i""QiHfc< for Ml tl2tl& ; cf. 7, 7 (n) carissima = 

M nntl^j © dyaTTT;. & ]Aicuk* amicam. 
8 (5) For the masculine suffixes in the illustrative quotation t (|H 
SprTHI?, *p38 tjftbjlftj we must 8ubstitute feminine 

suffixes c^rnm tjnbari, ?jrnb h ) following <& «*<^*L, 

^ao| , ^sZf^A . Even Delitzsch departs here from the 

Received Text. 

Budde thinks that f5l *J)nb2H is perhaps a corruption of 
tjFpriFJ 'she wrapped thee in swaddling clothes.' 

For M Sfnb h read, with Konig, Budde, Siegfried ^mbS 
following (& rj reKovad <tov (var., ere), fflr genitrix tua. Cf. 6,9 (1). 

The third hemistich is not a somewhat modified dittogram of 
the second (Budde), but the second hemistich is a prefixed 
explanatory gloss, or variant, to the third ; cf. 3,8. 10 

11 

4 (1) Bickell reads h ri h 2*l HS^ ( c /- 6,4, i. e., stanza vii) instead of 
IK h t"!S h Ijfitl , and for the second HS h of M he sub- 
stitutes mbm^ rtspa 0). For Tjrasb toS fr* 

he inserts 6, 5 a (vii c ) ; but it is sufficient to omit the second jnS^ 
of ffl, and ffl, ^TOmb 13?M > at the end of the second hemistich, 
which is an erroneous repetition from the end of v. 3 ; cf. notes on 
1,15 (T, a) and 3,1 Or)- Siegfried cancels M ^WS^b n o* 
only at the end of v. 1 but also at the end of v. 3 ; he thinks that 
the clause is especially awkward at the end of v. 3, which is cer- 
tainly wrong. 



68 



Hebraioa 



n 



4 Cheyne (JQR 11, 233) thinks that M D^DV "p h 3> is far from 

probable, especially in view of 6, 5 (vii). In both passages, says 
Cheyne, we should very possibly read ^tflbft ' have overpowered 
me.' Cf. Lane, op. ext., p. 77. 

For M lib j yV2 at the end of the verse Bickell reads p 
TSbyn as in 6, 5 (gloss v). Budde prefers "I^bSE • 

(2) Bickell cancels the second hemistich. 

For JE Db3 and D»"Q > at the end of the verse, instead of 1^5 
and -jJ-Q see note on 8,4 (j, 0). 

(3) The Q e re Tj'121'TO (® 4 ^ a ^" °" ov > ^ eloquium tuum, & ^NNsnV) 
instead of iJH K e thib "p^QTO is preferable ; a pluralis magni- 
tudinis is out of place in this case. The rare word is chosen in 
order to get two beats ; cf. note on 1,6 (j). 

(4) m nrsbnb *m tpaws tti Vims', © ^ Aa V «8 r p( £- 

X*;Aos (tov, 6 ipKoSofjLrjfjLtvos ets ©aA7ria)0, 3 Sicut turris David 
collum tuum, quae aedificata est cum propUgnaculis, £> )J-e 
l^s* "built with battlements, merlons' (Graecus Venetus, 
€7raA.£as). M T&'BbT} is neither a corruption of D^ttblZJ * (Cheyne, 
Expository Times, 9, 423; JQR 11, 562) nor a Greek loanword = 
TiyX(i>7rta (Gratz, Martineau, Budde) but the plural of the fern. inf. 
Piel,f fPSbri or fFSbri) from fisb 'to surround, to protect 
with walls and other fortifications.' The permansive lapi or 
labi is repeatedly met with in the cuneiform texts (HW 368 b ), 
and it is not impossible that the awai \ey6fxevov D h 3bl23 1 K 7,28 
{cf. Assyr. sulbu) is connected with this stem ; cf. Crit. Notes on 
Kings (SBOT), p. 95, 1. 11. 

**bt) is a superfluous insertion. 
For M 1 h b2 Bickell reads 

Siegfried considers the fourth hemistich, D*H!Hjin h tibl25 blD > 

a gloss. 

(6) At the end of the second hemistich we may supply IfflED • 

<& tt/oos tov (3ovv6v tov Aifidvov for M JlDinbn tXPDZ b^l 5 con- 
trast note on FJSirO (£)• We may read, however, Xifiavov (=3 
ad collem thuris) ; so, too, in v. 14 (where 3 = (ft, cum universis 
lignis Libani, but <& )^3n i\? ) w* n >aL). 
1 (9) For m ^ncob (ffi Trj L7nrio fxov, 3 equitatui meo) read ^jnbob ; 
cf. M for • 5,1 (t2, v). For the double plural ending see 
Ges. 27 , § 87, s and Haupt, Assyr. E-vowel (Baltimore, 1887), p. 5. 
Neither ^piDpb nor h 2p*0 is an amplificative plural (against 
Siegfried); contrast niZLD^J 6,12 (8,17). 
(10) It is not necessary to read, with Budde, "fi^ TH2 > following ®r 
tl wpaKaOrjaav; contrast 4,10 (viii). 

* Assyr. tukku is a synonym of aritu and qababu 'shield, pavise' (HW 129b, 
578b, 705a). 

t Cf. above, p. 40, a. §. 



n 



The Book of Canticles 



69 



4 €r ws , r/ovyoves, cos bpfxlcTKOL (3 sicut turturis, sicut monilia) 

= d H *lFl?, DIYlfiS; the same mistake in iVHaW 3,6 (H) 
and fibta 7,1(1). 
(5) iW ^123 at the beginning of the verse must be prefixed to iflfl 
(TPl^ TQl^ft in the second hemistich. Bickell omits 

6 (4) Cheyne (JQR 11,233) thinks that 'the true reading is f)8 tlSP 
r&UDTlto miSD rfcapfib cf. 2,1 and' notice 

D h 3U3llE in 6,3. The meadow-saffron became Tirzah; the lily, 
Jerusalem. The valleys (D h p532) became 'a terrible one' 
ft-HSPfcOj a nd this suggested to the scribe fllbT^S ; he thought 
of 8, 10. fYlb jH5 is neither an army with banners, nor the hosts of 
heaven (AoF 1,293), but simply a corruption (2 for 53).* In 6,10 
the parallel passage is an interpolation.' — But IYlbjflD5 fiEPK 
(f) is an interpolation in the present passage, not in 6,10 ("2, i). 
Cf. also Perles' Analekten, p. 31, quoted by Cheyne, Z. c. 

For <& ws evSoKta (3 suavis, & jjlr:^ ^])=M H^IM ; cf 
on jTTOK 4, 8 (H). Budde, following Bickell, is inclined to omit 
not only M fi^fd (e) but also DblWS filM- 

(5) For ffl flniD instead of "JSTO see above, note on 4, 2 (ii). 

For the variant ub^tl 153 (gloss i?) instead of ^bji Tl£ 
in stanza i see on 4,1. 

(6) iBi D h bmn 

is a gloss on miSISpfi m stanza ii, which after- 
wards crept into the text, displacing the original ftHl^pln ; cf. 
note on TlFQ 5,15 (1, f). (Sr has wg ayiXai r&v KeKapjxivoiv in 
both passages. 

For 0bM and see note on 4,2. 

(7) The double-line, corresponding to 4,3 a , which is here omitted in 
M, is supplied in ffi&H 

4 (9) Bickell and Budde think that vv. 9-11 belong to another song. 
Bickell believes they may represent a fragment of an alphabetic 
poem, but the sequence of the initial consonants of these three 
double-lines (b, 53, 3) may be accidental; cf. Crit. Notes on 
Proverbs (SBOT), p. 54, 1. 30. 

The Q e re ftftfcO is more correct than the K>thib *Ifi&Q but 
not absolutely necessary. 

M T^TW2 pD2 mfcO instead of Tfi8 p5» (Ges.2?, 
§ 134, d) is peculiar ; ffl p33> seems to be a gloss. Siegfried 
thinks that it is mis written for some other word (<& iv Be^ari, 3 in 

Pm 

uno crine colli tui, but & Nor is it necessary to insert, with 

Siegfried, a word for 'glance' between tlMfcO and "p^P- 
(12) Bickell's insertion pltf before iftfl n ftH2S, which is endorsed by 
Budde, is superfluous. 



So Gratz, Martineau. 



70 



Hebkaica 



4 Bickell reads ri'^IPlH "p3> instead of ffl D1JHH yW2 • 

ffl, b^ at the beginning of the second hemistich is better than 
p (so several MSS and editions, ffiftg, Gratz, Budde, Siegfried) ; 
b j could easily become p , but it is difficult to see why p should 
have been corrupted to b j • p is nothing but a repetition of the 
beginning of the first hemistich just as the following fH bl3?D 
which must be canceled. 

(15) V. 15 must be inserted after v. 12. 

Budde's emendation ^ fjft for M U^j '12 (gloss tt) is 
unnecessary, although it is adopted by Siegfried (Budde thinks 
that ($r v vrjyrj kyj-ttov koll points to , and that was mis- 
written for nor can we read with Winckler (AoF 1, 293) 
D^bj m fyi2 • ® V Trrjyrj Krjirov, ®r SA KrjTrcav, 3 fons hortorum, 5 
\±^y |i iV-r do not favor the reading D^bS? although (& has 
/d}7ros = "J j for bji in v. 12; Krj-n-os means 'garden' and according 
to the ancient lexicographers it is used also for pudendum 
mulieris. 

For instead of ilE n^G, see note on HDtf^ 3,11 (tf). 

(13) Bickell reads the plural D^DT® for fE 0TlS» and cancels M 

Before M *HS we must insert, with Budde, b^ ; cf. 14 b and 
the variant <r b ; also 7,14 b (ft). The b^ was probably omitted 
owing to the T^T2 ^IB at the end of the chapter (E , I, b ), where 
b5 is, of course, inappropriate. 

(14) M DblS should be inserted between M fllbn^ *TQ in the first 
hemistich of the variant <r. It is not necessary to read, with D. H. 
Muller, = pL^*^ KayKafxov, cancamum (Pliny 12, 98), a 
gum-resin from South Arabia ; cf. Ges.-Buhl 12 , s. v. D3*l3 (omitted 
in Ges.-Buhl 13 ). 

(16) Bickell's ^ h )T2in1 is not good. 

(16 b ) It is not necessary to read, with Bickell, ^23 for |H (so, too, 
&£3) ; cf. 6,2 (vi) and note on 1,2 (t). 
7 (12) fH tTlWn is an incorrect explanatory gloss; the lovers do not 
want to go to the country, but they desire to promenade in the fair 
garden of the bridal chamber. 

Bickell cancels the second hemistich. M D^SlDQ means 
'among the henna-flowers' (cf. 1,14; 4,13), not ' in the villages ' 
((£ iv Kw/xats, 3 in villis, <£ lj ; so, too, Ges.-Buhl 13 ; Siegfried 
in Siegfried-Stade, contrast Siegfried's commentary; Brown- 
Driver-Briggs). 

(13) Prefix OSS to the third hemistich (Bickell cancels ffl FIF® 
^TfiCTi)- 3 repeats si before each of the three clauses, but this 
does not show that was read three times in the Hebrew text. 



The Book of Canticles 



71 



7 ® has yjv6r)(re not only for M ysjn , but also for HIS and 

nns. ' 

(14) Bickell cancels M limfrS blPl • It is better to read the singular 
IDnnS? although IHffi^ have the plural (em Ovpais 17/Awv, inportis 
nostris, ^-^U VLo); cf. note on "p^QTE 4,3 (fi). 

M "jb TOSS is a relative clause (against Budde); cf. 

note on 3,8 (tf). 

6 (11) For HE ftSa (Est. 1,5; 7,7) we may point JnbB ; cf. the plural 

D^SD i n 6,2 C (vi) and note on 5,13 (1). It is not necessary to read, 

withGratz, for JPfflC tVlfcOb- 

5 (1) For f5l (so, too, read ^23, pluvalis amplificativus, 

— the beautiful garden ; cf. above, note on 6, 11 and contrast note 

on 1,9 01). 

151 h Jnh^ is not vocative, but nomen rectum depending on 
the nomen regens h ^ . 

£ repeats the first hemistich thrice (the third time without the 
vocative fto Tin&O- 

fft h 73i2H h 11£, &c, is idiomatic Hebrew; cf. 4,13. 14, 
where we have this 03? four times. Budde says that in 1,11 
0, 8) tpDTl D3? • . • • nlHT 'HIM is not Hebrew. C/. 

also Ecci. 2,16 crosn ds" 7,n (riasri roita 

nbfO D3>)> &c. D3> means 'as well as.' 

Stanzas iv and v may be variants of stanza vi. 



2 (9) The first two hemistichs (a) must be canceled, with Bickell, 
Budde, Siegfried, as a scribal expansion derived from 2,17 
(T, ix a ). (& adds also the last words of 2,17, liii ra oprj Bat^X, 
although *iro by is rendered in 2,17 by iirl oprj kolXw- 

fxaroiv. 

The dativus ethicus in M ^b HOT 2, 17 is correct (against 
Ges. 27 , § 119, s) ; it means, ' Make thyself like, jump like,' &c. (cf. 
Noldeke, Syr. Gh\ 2 , § 224). 

Bickell cancels Ml it is omitted in but not in 

(raps ( ffi s has it at the end of the line, after ffl, ^bfd Ifitf). 

According to Winckler (AoF 1, 293), bt"0 does not mean 
'wall' but 'side-building.' Contrast BA 4, 513, 1. 2. 

For IH FFME and referring to the lover, we must 

read, with Budde, FPjUJIS and , referring to the maiden ; 

contrast Siegfried ad loc. 
(10) Cancel 10 a (jS) with Martineau. 

dSc avdo-Ta i\0e (3 surge, propera) misunderstood the dativus 
ethicus in t]b h 32lp (cf note on 4,8; ft) and added therefore 
Trepio-Tepa fxov instead of Kal i\6e — M Tjb'^bl at the end of the 
stanza (so, correctly, Budde). 3 inserts columba mea before 



/ 



72 Hebraica 

2 formosa mea = M HSP, although it has et vent = "ib^lDbl a t 
the end of the first stanza. At the end of the second stanza* the 
refrain is correctly translated in 3. & gives a correct translation 
of the refrain in both cases, but the first time Jft ~jb"^Dbl is 
rendered by ^al* ; and the second time, by ^al *»Z© . 

It is not necessary to cancel the conjunction in IE "jb'^bl 
(against Bickell). 

(11) For HE read into; see note on 5,2 (*]). The Qe r e VftD 
(c/. the qVg Num. 12,3 and Vbb t) is incorrect. In the 

T 

same way is less correct than ^FP = D^J)T ; see my 

t t : ~ t : _ 

remarks in the Andover Review (July, 1884), p. 96, n. 1; cf. ZA 
2, 266. 

Sb omits the second hemistich of this verse. 
It is unnecessary to insert, with Siegfried, *| before |5l "lb "jbfl > 
although several MSS prefix the conjunction. 

(12) For the plural form D n D2£D see Haupt, Assyr. E-vowel (Baltimore, 
1887), p. 5. 

Before M (canceled by Budde and Siegfried) the 

meter requires the insertion of fcO DID?! ; the omission of fcO 
was due to haplography, cf. Crit. Notes on Ezra-Neh. (SBOT), 
p. 61, 1. 1 ; DlDJl rnay have been omitted because it was mistaken 
for D1DH 'the horse.' In Is. 38,14 DID has the gloss (omitted 
in (&) TD3?, derived from Jer. 8,7 (Q e re C^C); cf. Lagarde, 
Mittheilungen, 3,31. 

(13) For M rDHFl (3 grossi; cf. Pliny 17, 254) read n$p\; see note 
on 3,11 (a)". " 

(14) The second btD33 of the third stanza may be restored from 5,2 
Cl,ii a ). 

The Q e re TjfcOft, for the K e thib at the end of the 

verse, is unnecessary. 
8 (18) l$l D^IBpE D^lft is an incorrect explanatory gloss to M 
riMVn; this is not a collective (cf. note on 2,7; T) but a voca- 
tive (cf. note on 1, 4; t) addressed to a maiden. 

1 (7) Cancel H3nn TO^tf, with Bickell. 

Gratz reads fib* 1 ** for M TO"^ (& U^A), but eka means 
'where V in Assyrian (HW 48 a ). 

For tTtSS^ (®> 7repL(3a\\ofJi€vrj, cf. 7rept(3\r}fxa = irepi- 
fioXdLov 'cover, wrap') read >T2bD (56 ^] , 3 ne vagari 

incipiam) with Noldeke, Gratz, Siegfried. Bickell reads JTp25 
which is said to mean ' fainting, swooning ; ' he compares Arab. 
x-yLc ; but this combination is impossible. Nor can we 

* Here (g adds «al e\0e, preceded by nepLarepd fxov. 
t See Crit. Notes on Numbers (SBOT), p. 48, 1. 23. 



The Book of Canticles 



73 



1 adopt the suggestion of Wetzstein (endorsed by Budde) that M 
TPZfc = *^>L*^ 'pining with love' (cf. 5,8; 1, vii c ). 
(8) 151 0^12531 5l3^n must be canceled, with Bickell; contrast 
Budde ad loc. 

M a ^ er ^Itl must not be omitted (against Budde) ; cf. 
note on 2,9 

Nor need we read, with Budde, instead of M Itf^fi 

(Or TWV TrOljXVliDv). 

<5r A adds to twv 7rot/xev(i)i/, at the end of the second stanza, aov ; 
this is an erroneous repetition of the pronoun at the end of the 
first stanza; cf. note on 5,5 (1, 8). 



3 (1) Cf. for this song my remarks in H, p. 58. 

Vintf^ tfbl VttlEpl M is not a refrain (Budde) but an 
erroneous repetition of the second hemistich of the following 
double-line (/3) which is a scribal expansion derived from 5,6 
(1, vi b ). fflr inserts here also eKaXeaa avrov kcu ofy v-rrrfKOvcriv 
fxov = *ny tfbl VJnfcOp 5,6 (I, vi*), and in ©ap this clause is 
added again at the end of v. 2. 

(2) For the final -a in M mniCfcO WTlElpi* see BA 1,10, below 
(cf. ibid., p. 340) and my paper on the particle ^5" (Syr. p , = 
Assyr. emphatic -ma) cited in Ges. 27 , § 105, b, n. 3. 

For M D^pltSn point D h p^2l. 

(3) M D^/JISn is an incorrect explanatory gloss (cf. 1 , /3 ; t) > a) to 
D h 2!2bri • Bickell, on the other hand, cancels M D n 22b»l • 

(4) For ttf c/. Crit. Notes on Proverbs (SBOT), p. 45, 1. 19. 

M ^^^53125"^ is correct (against Budde); it must be 
explained in the same way as the corresponding I <M = 
j ^! ; cf. Wright-de Goeje3 2, p. 13, D and p. 339, C (e. g. Ui 
o^uJ! J*sO JJ> t>^-ww^l Ijt ^(5^? a^*); Reckendorf, 

Arab. Synt. (Leyden, 1898), p. 774. Budde thinks that T25 *V 
(<& ecus ov, & ? l^r^) i n ^Fl^^DTir^ is an erroneous repetition 
of the 125 13? prefixed to VH^H (8), but the 123 before 8 
is an erroneous repetition of 123 *I3> in h fil$£/2123 15?? not wee 
versa. 

Gloss 8 belongs to 8,2 (j, viii); so Bickell, Budde, Siegfried. 
Just as the last double-line of 8 is followed by the first double- 
line of so the last double-line of the parallel passage 8,4 is 
followed by the variant to the opening double-line of viz. 
8,5* (a, p). This shows that 3,4^-6 and 8,2-5 a are variants 
(Bickell). 

Gloss 8 seems to have displaced the last hemistich of v. 4, 
which has been conjecturally restored in our text ("bi$ ""l/E&l 

"nosa rariKu:); cf. a, >?; -j, a*, iv* ; i, xi*; \ a*, h>a. i.k. 



74 



Hebraica 



8 (6) We must not read, with Bickell, ^12W, l^b, WIT f or M 
h 5ETto> "pb, '"pill ; contrast note on 1,4 (j, vii b ). Nor need 
we change, with Budde, the second DtYlTO of tfH to 

T 

dSc to? (T<f>payi8a, 3 ut signaculum, in both cases. 

BickelPs HtlfcOp* which is endorsed by Budde, for iftfl JlfcWp 
is unnecessary. 

Budde's emendation, btf h S123l for |ft 1$$ ^31231 is not good. 

For HE ?Tt"QilbTZJ •> at the end of the verse, we must read 
(with Ewald, Hitzig, Olshausen, Kamphausen, Budde, Siegfried) 
tt h "fi3Hbtfj H h rihribir' (haplography ; <& has simply <£Aoyes 
avTYjs, 3 atque flammarum, & |ZU^<ti^4/©) ; cf. FJltTP 1 K 
18,38. This is decidedly preferable to BickelPs tYfajnitt) 
n^riinblD Tip*. Contrast Crit. Notes on Jeremiah (SB64 1 ), 
p. 45, l. :: 28, and Z AT 16,6. 
(7) For m rDSltfr; n» tYlSftb read, with Budde, arvisfib. 

For M 1in"to-n« ® has tov Trdvra (3lov avrov, but 3 

omnem substantiam domus suae, & ot£w»^9 |?Zq^ ol^s . Bickell 
inserts *T"QJ 1133 h i after the second hemistich, and 1T£T 
after 0, followed by a hemistich of his own invention, jTJDp* 1 fcO 
rO»1&mK > and h S prefixed to lb lTll h T13 5 but this last 
clause is interrogative, although it is not introduced by an inter- 
rogative particle, just as in 3,3 b (stanza ii). ffir prefixes there firj, 
3 num, & } v\ . 

Addendum. 

Ad p. 61, 1. 6 (note on 6,8):— If 6,8 is preceded by 8,12 it is not 
necessary to substitute n^bU5 for tTDtl 5 c f- n °te on 1,2 (j). 



"A 



i 





The Book of Canticles 




75 








Index. 






/II * 


Nos. 




M 


Nos. 




1 1 


• • l,t at 


5,12^ , . 




€ 


2-4 


. . 7, 


vi. vii 


12* ' . . 




Al 




. . 3, 


ii. iii 


6, 1 




Vlll 


7 ft 


. . 11 




2 . . 


q 


VI 


9 10 


. . 8, 


V 


3 . . 


Q 

. . O, 


,'a 


11 


. . 3, 


8 


4-7 . . 


. . o, 


vii 


12-14 


• • 7, 


iv. v 


8.9 . . 


4 




15 




a 


10 . . 


2 


l 


16. 17 




i 


11 . . 


Q 

. . t7. 


IV 


2 1 


. . 3, 


i 


12 . . 


1 

X, 


V 


2 




p 


7, 1.2 . . 


2 


li. in 


3-6 


• • 7, 


ii-iv 


3 a . . 




vi ib 

Vll 


7 




X 


3 b . . 




VII" 


8-14 


. . 10 




4 . . 




OL 


15 


. . 3, 


y 


5 . . 




y 


16. 17 


. . 7, 


viii. ix 


6 . . 




i vb 


3 1-5 


. . 12, 


i-iii a 


7 . . 




vib 

V 1 


6-11 


. . 1 




8 . . 




iv a 


4 1-4 


. . 8, 


i-iv 


9 . . 




P 


5-7 




vi 


10 




VI 


Q 

o . . 


. . 5 




11 . . 


9 
O, 




9-12 


. . 8, 


viii-x a 


12-14 . . 


Q 

V, 


ib— iii 


13. 14 




xi 


13c . . 


Q 
o, 


V 


15 




Xb 


8, 1-4 . . 


Q 
O, 


vii vi n 

VII. Vlll 






xii 


5 


1 

J., 


P 


16 b 


. . 9, 


i a 


6.7 . . 


12 


\\\b y 


0, i d 




V 


8-10 . . 


Q 


iv— vi 


lb . . 


• ■ 7, 


I 


11.12 . . 


• • 4, 


i. ii 


2-16 . ... 


. . 6 




13 . . 


. . 10, 


8 


5d . . 




v b 


14 . . 


• • 7, 


V 


6c . . 




iv d 









* The first column gives the chapters and verses of the Received Text. 

t These figures refer to the numbers of the songs in the present edition. 

t Greek letters indicate glosses. !| Roman figures refer to the stanzas. 



76 



Hebraioa 



: Divan nnn»ti-n« 

♦ "'12533 nSTSwrba "TOhl 
^iit b? qmra 

ifr nhnbia rrnhnbir 

T 

stidbuf ab rvnwi 
Mb itin h m 



mb^n "DMa b? 3, a 
T*n raniDao arrraiptf 2 

-pb-b? anire ^E h to 8,6 
rana mas n-tr^ 

T 

1- 



vnasB »bi miepa <«) 3,a 

T»n«SB »bi wropa ^ss ranatrna nrcpia o) 

a^nttisn (y) 3 

tvnin -nrrbai ib» rra~ba w^nnciDTW (*> 

mten ni^ama maisn (Dbrai-p) hiDn aona wran n 
: y snntp ranarrna i-nisn Dai iwd» 

nnnaa w t^a w rnnarrna (0 D^an die w 8, 7 

T 



The Book of Canticles 77 



an riT-nsn bip 2, 8 

stYiaaarrb* yspft D^nrrb? aVna 

: t 

jD^rn^a y^a m^nn-fa mica 

s^b-^bi n ns^ ^rrsn tjb-jttip? h 

:ib"]bn qbri dima nn? inten nsrra 11 

Fan teth re -pan i*co mssin 12 

imnxn an Dion so-aw nnn bipi 

m law v D h D33m mas rran mann 13 

T 

itjb-^bl '•hs* -n^n t]b- h £ip 

reman nnon yb&n-'wn "wr 14 

h nftti ^rra h b- h rtrs 

5 Tjbip-na wwn ^ana-rua ^rann 

inlaw tpaofci nn? ^bip *d 

:t|b- h ibi Tia* Trip ^b- h Eip 



n^an ns3?5 ik -mb "nri man (a) 2, 9 
tied (v) 13 nsy (is) 1 

T 

: WBiDn ?fbnpb (Miopia D^-an) epw rattan w 8,13 



tnnsn y^nnn n:ra a "rasa nnnauj h b-nran 1,7 

T ':^nn b? mteb nn» n^bir 

1«xn ■ap*n tjb-^s ^b to ab-oa 8 

ttnhn mayana b* ^pha-n« 



LifC. 



nmn ro^x (*) 1,7 



78 



Hebraica 



■nbn (v) 4 r\tr\mb nraE o> w («o 4,» 

"ini&n D^bbsn iDDi n*nn nwto 6 

: nmbn nrm ban -ran nrrba ^bibs 

: nrbssi 113 irabaiB msn tod spyto o?) n 

: nsrnn p nby© D^brnn ttpd spgtci e 

: am -pa nbsteii nwanE Dbsin 

torn (A) nfa 00 u nbD co 1 orto) ^nha ■osoab w 4, 9 

bnrs (o) nbD (i) 12 rrn m 1 rm ao 11 

D'HIS D"HBD (p) 13 D^aa "pTE (*) ID 

D^ttto TOin bD"or mbnai n^nm *vn (<o u 



1 WW ^3 bs*C1 13ab *TH *CP 4,16 b 

itfitoa nrbs ^11 rob 7,12 

in d^m bs linre-byi rm tiro d^titi 14 

:tjb tobs h in own 



bnsn manb m m$ nsjrba 6,11 
raton-a* ^rina h pb -nac 5, a 



Dtt&an nwtfb *mb it ■mi 6, 2 

•ffwra ttbbbl D^jfi mnb 

1 1 1- 



nbD o) 5,s 



mton («) 7,12 



The Book 



nsrnn -pa ib^tp 
torn i h » nb3i25i 

maw tpniEi 

ni^bnb ^im 
:D h injn *ttbtt bs 

:tp pa Dtai 
*Dbu:vv5 ni^D 

: r 

spnnb nnn nbnv 
sffsfcn baa tpaaiDi 

*:Dinn i^a °b^ 
{■pinb la trbmi 

rnmb ^ b^-D? 

nraizn ib-r 



of Canticles 

n 

nimxpn -fsin 2 
mantra DtoiD 

tpryinsia ^tin tains 3 
T|npn p^nn nbas 

rb? ^sh qba 

rfns mm ^nbpb 1, 9 

D h n'nn tpTib h 

trw ^to tpis 4, n 

wi nsr tjb3 7 

•wi riK 6, 4 

'nMa ifw ^cn n 

ijwb nnao ^mnb 9 4, 9 

"-TtyinBto naston nab 11 
■pub rms Tpriabir^ 

^nha bw p 12 

D^n ora nan 1tt 

triifci dtib ^nbizi 13 

pESpl HDp « 14 

•pSS "nt* 16 



80 



Hebraica 
T 



I 


:ran laizw 3 trwqK 
jDTiro bsi 


nr -|3n a 1,16 
D h T^^ iDnn rvnp 17 


II 


psrtb pirra mai 


nrn mere 
^nmm "man ibsn 


2, 3 


III 


inarw Tb* ibqm 


rra-ba won 


4 

n 


IV 


pspnnn law 


■noaob nnn ibatato 
larai ^banto 1? 


6 

1,12 


V 




■•b^TH nabn biDTO 


13 
14 


VI 


: e ^nna mab? "p-b* 


-ps mp^sa h Dp k ©2 
"fly® pwi -pc* 


2 
3 


VII 


j-frin ^ban h ^nn 


nsma | -pn« ^idide 
in nmaton nbVs 


4 


VIII 


nb D^bb^n 1051 


lb ^rn 


2,16 
17 


IX 


D^b^n nsfrb is 
rmabn rtai ban 


^nsb ^b-nttt 
-fen h nn b^ 




X 


mien mb^ma mansn 


0 man Dsns wnirn 


7 



jysrir 



niD 13> nnnan-na th mw d»i woti-ds 



: ipav ensn) ?[an nh;*n nsi ^an («o 1,113 

Tow Dining (e) 4 pinita m-ib (5) i, 3 

D'H'H ratai m© (D^an.) ibDa: (0 5, a 

trt*»n nabb-ia insb ib-mani -n-n rnn 0?) 8,u 

tn^ta^nby nnn ■nn Si 2,17 

sprrni* msnn nnn co 8,n b obiim^ (0) 2, 7 

. : -jmb^ nban mate 



The Book of 


Canticles 


81 




imsm bim 

T I" 

:nw3 wiro vnVi* 

T 


tai ore iiusn 


5, h 
11 


X 


na&a b? rvour 6 


nbra Wcm+i 


12 


XI 






13 


XII 


unrnra trabfta 

i- 


nriT ■Wa it 


14 


XIII 


♦ u"~5n2 i nT JiS b 

IT 


1 li IN ia 




XIV 


inborn rran 




16 


XV 



ninn K) is acraa ipiB» by w 12 wtfstj (*) 5,11 



82 



Hebraica 



1 



^ran wr h rm 
:rfrb ^izpim 

biwon tvia b* 



mb^bn ■aME-b* 5, 2 
h b h nns 

btt tfb^ 'TBOTlD 

h b:n 

it nba 4 
*b* tan 

a rfnsb wip n 

r\)2 IBttt h T1 



nn? p^n *hiti *mb h 3s wire 6 

»Vi rrunp iffnm «bi vprraps 

^rrna lami Dsns 8 

psa mna nbirrai ib iran rra 

D*im ns^n tpi ^bn nat 6, a 

ffraa n3 h n iito spn rta 5, 9 



obtoiT (v) s "niib («) 5,n 

wa D^nnbn (D"ntti&n> i^ana w 7 



The Book of Canticles 83 



D^t)bb crarma ■pro ymn bjan 8,11 

:^Di bpltf qb& tied *cp 

■pan ^nsarrab wi ^ab ^Vid 12 

: Yns-na ffntabb d^rjwai rfcbra -jb qba n 



^rab^ d«i woba rto'brab d*®® 6, 8 
aorrnna ^nam w ^rrnrw 9 



:mbbm D h uftb h si msba nrvcan nm msi 



"ISO's "pa mabyi 6, s o) nb'brcb mn («) 8,11 



win ■paato h na ribs ffinba tu* 4, 8 



d^m ^rra nma nta 

******* ****** 



84 



Hebraioa 



II 



III 



IV 



nmpiTon h bai 
irtabia wra 



^b^Wl h Wb ^ 7,11; 6,3 

■pnfin nb&in 2, a 

niMi minis 1, n 

t'» t; |: 

mining h n*nn-ba 6 



fib *ptf tT'Tffll 



nsap isb nina 8, 8 
linhab ntos na 



an stain Da 9 
arn nbi Dai 



VI 



VII 



VIII 



^3tf M tZ> pDV 

pb Trta* ab-D3 
: win nrrb&i 

^D^'ETl DWa 



ran? nam ^ 



-jpisa ymn -ja^aa 

tvtrba e -pra* 
np^n 1^53 ^piiix 



IX 



^ ^ ^ ^ ^£ ^ ^ 

******* 



******* 
******* 



: mDnn 'pa imyvp 



D'wvpa nmn («) 7,11; 6, 
DTnnn pa nsiEhttb m 2, 2 

■m-arab *>w *w (v) 1, 6 
Dibmto nab-iTna 2,it3 
D-wa D^bara 
Sfb-meya arrr ^nin («) 1,11 
wabn i^aa 00 8, 2 

^roan nnn ibafcto w 3 
(DbtDW) msa odds wai&n 4 



: trao ir^nan 

T 

: aoan jn^pa or 
na ^n&r™ w 7,i3e 



The Book of Canticles 85 



n 



U W « mm to ten L« b« to k 


i- 


6, h 


i 


7p nTn" ^j, "125 J iiD 

Spartan nbran 

: r 


Fra "Ten uiic ^2 1123 

rr^ibm Win rra 


7, 


ii 






o 


in 












torn a tarn W tantamhAtaa taatomkAbtak. 

"lEfO fttV2^ ^\T\12^p 


8 
6 


IV 


'■pnisro mra tfw 


■fan bTOJD tps 
■jtabn b^M tpg 


n 


V 








VI 


lawn ra raritf 




7 






mm my spta 


3 b 


VII 


saran xrr ba 




3 a 





■nspson nm« 
:DTnsro «fjsK jtti 



D^BSf ^SIZJD -pHlD (*) 7,4 

narnEnn nb?8 thex o) 9 

D^mi tiox ibtt (v) e 
□i-mrab cnnb) ^bnn (<o •» 



?]w mmo wtirrp rfe ww-ia 3, 6 

star? npna nambi ia rrt&gp 

: ynnbn e -jbEn ib-nto? friari. 9 

ia« ib-nnto^iD rntpn "-jbm 'nrani rms* 11 

: msnn &yqi mb wrote Dm 



: nrn by npsnna nrrarrp nbb nar^o o) s,n 

ntibw (y) 3, 7 

ra'biB (e) 9 
nnT nriTsn odd ntoy thw co 

:n^roy mron^ wain ^sa mgn nan cwr Kb) o>) 6,12 
ntfbto oo jra msn (o obim-p man w 3,11 



86 



AUG 1 1 19° 2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



11111 

0 020 517 381 A 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0 020 517 381 ft # 



